Went to a Tea Party fund raising dinner this week. Lots of patriotism and fist shaking - which I like - and then we got to God...the Judeo-Christian god of the founding Fathers. Afterward, when I objected to the organizer, she said I could always find another Tea Party to join. I will.
Adding a religious component to a secular crisis is not only exclusionary, it ignores one of history's clearest lessons: religion and governing don't pair well. Even Christianity can run amok. How many people were skewered, hacked, incinerated, drawn and quartered, hanged, or garroted during the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Salem witch trials? Could never happen again, you say? Doesn't matter. We don't have to risk it, and shouldn't.
Any institution with the power to control human behavior must be feared and contained. The Tea Party should focus on de-funding and reshaping a government that has overstepped. Period. The danger presented by Obama and the Progressives isn't an antagonism to Christianity. It's fiscal stupidity and a reduced capacity to survive in today's world. It's their belief we exist for the state. It's the confiscation of wealth and earnings, demonizing capital, class warfare, devaluing incentive and achievement, preventing alternative sources of education. There's way more, but you get the picture.
America exists as an ideal because it allows life's rewards (not entitlements) to be enjoyed while people are still alive. The founders may have been Christians, but they risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to get out from under a government, not to form a new theocracy. Want to stay true to their spirit? Throw the bums out this November, and never take your eye off the ball again. Oh yeah, and accept the fact that atheists can still be great Americans.
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