March 3, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

The Separation of Church and State

Separation of Church and State

I am wondering if any of you have been gnashing your teeth, and shout at the TV whenever you watch the news. There are a lot of negative issues. For instance, the United States now educater fewer scientists each year, we import more high-tech products, many Americans think that the answer for teen pregnancy is not education on birth control and safe sex, but abstinance. Don’t get me wrong I, in theory, believe that abstinance should be taught but there is a gap between theory and reality. Teens with raging hormones don’t always understand what parents and schools are trying to tell them.

My biggest frustration, however, is the people who are talking and insisting on the idea that this country was formed as a Christian Country. So, I am going to explain what is really has happened.

” Those who won our independence believed…that the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people,,,that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope, and imagination; that fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government…Fear cannot justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.” ——by Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis.

Thomas Jefferson on separation of church and state

God is claimed by both sides in a war, and the Bible is used to defend the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, slavery, lynching, apartheid, racism, povery, violence against women, homophobia and a score of other human tragedies. The three largest Christian-right organizations call for “Crusaders” to pray that certain U.S. Supreme Court justices whose voting records they dislike will die. Televangelist Pat Robertson blames talk show host, Ellen Deganeres for the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. He also intimidated that God had sent the Hurricane to punish people. Robertson also declares that the attack on America on 9-11, was also God punishing America.

Did you know?

The Air Force Academy, has developed a “strident evangelicalism”. There have been fifty-five complaints of religious discrimination filed in the past few years. The Academy has also become a test tube of sexual harrassment. Female cadets filed charges that were ignored or overlooked. Faith-based prisons are apparently making money by reaping in the profits of spreading the Gospel to convicts. As taxpayers, we pay for proselytizing prisons without ever giving permission or voting for our money to be used in this manner. Inmates receive special priveleges if they follow all-day, all-week, Christian agendas. Prision ministries have as much as $46 million budgets.

Kennedy quote re: Church and State

The Constitution of the United States of America does not contain even one reference to a diety — on purpose. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the Founding Fathers of our country and he said, the Founding Fathers were a hodgepodge of freethinkers, Deists, agnostics, Christians, and Freemansons. Above all they were radicals.

“Question with boldness even the existence of a god.” —Thomas Jefferson

“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind.” –James Madison

“I doubt of Revelation itself.” –Benjamin Franklin

” My own mind is my church” –Thomas Paine

George W. Bush added, “so help me God.” to his presidential oath of office.

Pat Robertson claims that “In God We Trust” was on our currency and “Under God” was the U.S. motto from 1776. These were not added until 1950.

John Adams declared, ” The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.”

Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison in 1789, ” No society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living genetation.”

We now take it for granted that churches, temples, mosques, and other religious institutions are tax exempt-but it was not always that way, nor was it the intent of the Founders. This policy was the fruit of a religious campaign.

So was “In God We Trust” getting stamped onto our coinage and the insertion of ” Under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance. The religious movement that we are living in is different. This time is the blatant political mobilization of extreme right religious forces, which seek to change the Constitutional mandate to keep Church and State separated. This mandate is why the Founding Fathers called their new country a Republic, not a Theocracy.

Ronald Reagan’s quote

I would like to be clear about one thing in this blog. I believe the Fathers built a wall between Church and State. I also believe in the Divinity of the Universe. I believe it dwells within each of us and all of life around us. The One wants us to love, support, accept, care for each other and all living things including our planet. He/she/It does not a government run. So think about what is really happening right now in our country.

Some excerpts taken from Fighting Words, by Robin Morgan

December 19, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

Time to Begin Healing

He is my brother

The town of Newton and the country need to begin the long process of healing. There has been a frightening amount of negative energy released into the world this year. Yes, it does happen every year, but somehow this one felt worse. So what to do? What is the response of rational, thinking, feeling, caring citizens?.

There is a lot of negative energy right now and the numbers of people who have died due to violence is escalating. How should we react in the face of all of this negativity? We use love and light. We walk our spiritual paths and we surround our country with white protective light.

I am talking about working on the spiritual plane right now. The government can and I hope, will handle the issues of violence and gun control facing us now. When we face people with negativity, hatred, greed or power seeking, we need to use compassion, love, and light to carry the message of love and peaceful living into the world.

The idea of meeting violence with violence is not good because it escalates the issues. Caring about other beings is vital for us as children of the Universe. Meeting violence with love is the place I think we need to begin. We need to use forgiveness, compassion as well as light and love to heal our own hearts and to prevent hearts from filling with hatred and violence.

There are a lot of people who are working very hard to doom our beautiful world into darkness. We need to be more positive, show more kindness, act with more compassion and find more of the beauty that is in our lives. We need to give more, stand up and speak the truth more and deal with our anger. We need to go to anger management or therapy. We need to realize our anger does not give us the right to react violently when we disagree with someone.

We need to praise good work and honest effort. We need to listen to the wisdom, gained through years of living, of those who have earned their wisdom from facing and dealing with the many issues that come up in the journey of a lifetime.

The Wild Rose of Praise

“Those unable to grieve,

Or to speak their love,

Or to be grateful, those

Who can’t remember God

As the source of everything,

Might be described as vacant wind,

Or a cold anvil, or a group

Of frightened old people.

Say the Name. Moisten your tongue

With praise, and be the spring ground,

Waking. Let your mouth be given

Its gold-yellow stamen like the wild rose’s.

As you fill with wisdom,

And your heart with love,

There’s no more thirst.

There’s only an unselfed patience

Waiting on the doorsill, a silence

Which doesn’t listen to advise

From people passing in the street.”

————Sanai

The poet Sanai lived in the twelfth century. Children laughing once again

Let Peace Happen

November 6, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

I Hear America Sing

Colin Powell speaks for President Obama

Four More Years

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,

Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,

The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,

The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,

The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,

The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,

The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown.

The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,

Each singing what belongs to the day-at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,

Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

—Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) wrote in long, loose lines. Whitman introduced to American poetry a democratic, all-encompassing vision and a freedom of style that liberated the form from its traditional constraints.

Whitman was a man of the people. He wasn’t rich and he wandered around our great country meeting the everyday man and woman. He found solace and inspiration in the lives of the 99%. They weren’t called that then, but these days we are. These days we have the 99% and the 1 %. Most of us are part of the 99% and we care about each other, whether we have met or not. We know they are our sisters and brothers. We don’t all look alike, We don’t all speak English well. We don’t all believe in the same issues. What we all are is Americans proud of our country and where we are going. On this election day, I Hear Americans Sing and they vote.

Gloria Steinam for Obama

Coretta Scott King speaks for President Obama

Vote for Hope

Ladies, our ancestors worked hard for us to have the vote. Please go out and stand in line and vote.

In America, every citizen has the right to vote. Citizens of other countries, cannot all say that. Don’t take the vote for granted.

November 2, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

We Are the World

Hurricane Sandy has now come, destroyed and gone. We, as citizens of our country need to come together regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or economic status and turn around and see the millions of people who are injured, scared, in pain, overwhelmed and homeless.

Yes, FEMA will help, and the states will help, but people need more. They need each other. They need the rest of the country to care and to pull together with donations and volunteers. People are still in shelters. Children have lost their favorite stuffed toy. Some people have not one material thing left in this world. Nothing left to show that they were ever there or ever cared about anything.

Material things are not the most important things, but warm clothes, a roof over your children’s heads, and food and water are necessary to maintain life. So please donate to the American Red Cross tell them your donation is for Hurricane Sandy. Take time out to be grateful for what you have and share with the millions who have had their lives devastated.

For those who live in communities not as hard hit as New Jersey, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Rhode Island and elsewhere you can help on a more personal level. If neighbors are without power, invite them to have a warm shower and a meal. Help to put up tarps on roofs and perhaps drive children to school. Share a hug and let someone know you care that they are suffering and feeling alone and helpless. Take them to church, temple, or mosque so they may have relief and support there also.

This is the time for the 99% to show that we are strong and love our fellow Americans. We have open hearts and will lovingly and compassionately reach out and help those in need. We are Americans and will help each other and anyone who is in need. So, to the food banks, to your churches, to your local shelters give what you can and give it with love.

Satelite picture of America after Hurricane Sandy

October 9, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

The Vote

America is coming up on one of our most important votes. Historically, voting; before the women received the vote, men made voting into an excuse to drink and have fist fights..There was chaos. It is amazing that we made it through these times. Voting was done in saloons and a man’s vote got him a free shot of whiskey.

There were problems with voter ID. Not because of the reasons we debate today, Police were stationed in the saloons to keep the peace. They often looked the other way, so guys could vote again and get another shot. Guns were toted for a man’s protection. Some may have even been needed. Don’t know. Election day was wild.

Today, emotions flare on all sides. We have evolved. Thanks to the Suffragettes, women now have the responsibility of voting too. We no longer vote in the saloons and the whiskey no longer flows like hot lava. Election day is a time for all citizens to speak up.

We must remember on election day to put our apathy aside. Citizens all over the world risk their lives to get to America to have the chance to become citizens and to vote to keep the freedoms we have here in America. They traveled here in ships and planes seeking what the original Pilgrims sought when they arrived in the 1600’s. They wanted freedom and a voice in creating and strengthening these freedoms for all Americans.

In November, remember voting is indeed a right, but it is also an important responsibility. If we are apathetic and don’t use our vote, we weaken our democracy. In every generation, there have been those who threw the hat in and gave up. They stopped voting. They stopped listening to issues. Both sides of the issues. If something happens later on they don’t like, often, they are the first to complain loudly and frequently. Perhaps if these people had voted, the results would be much different. At the very least, they would have had the opportunity to say, to vote for what they believed in.

My challenge to Americans in November is to go to the polls and vote. Tell our leaders what and whom you want to lead our government. Don’t get caught up in the discontent you feel. Use the discontent within to get yourself out of the house, vote before you go to work or on your way home. We are citizens of a great Democracy and we have a responsibility to work to keep it whole and continuing to grow as the world is growing.

It is important to remember that with all of the new technology, America and Americans need to show people what Democracy is and how it can and does improve lives. Go vote, be proud, no matter who wins, and I do have a favorite, but whoever wins the process will have worked again as it has every four years since the founding fathers wrote the Constitution.