President: Standing up for America means Standing up for God
I know here that you will agree with me that standing up for America also means standing up for the God who has so blessed our land. I believe this country hungers for a spiritual revival. I believe it longs to see traditional values reflected in public policy again. To those who cite the first amendment as reason for excluding God from more and more of our institutions and everyday life, may I just say: The first amendment of the Constitution was not written to protect the people
of this country from religious values; it was written to protect religious values from government tyranny.
Without using a web search engine, who said it?
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Gotta be Reagan. But it will probably be Obama or Clinton.
Guess that was too easy. Source: Ronald Reagan’s Address Before a Joint Session of the Alabama State Legislature in Montgomery, March 15, 1982.
Just because Ronald Reagan said it doesn’t make it true. Freedom “of” and Freedom “from” are two sides of the same coin. In America people are free to practice their religion/belief in a deity or none at all. Logical and free-thinking people know that religious values are “personal values” and cannot be forced on another. We must also be protected from Religious tyranny or suffer the fates of the past.
I stand for America and I long for the day to be totally free to believe whatever I want to; without someone telling me I will burn in hell because I don’t believe the way someone else wants me to believe. I would not wish that on anyone either.
@watchtower,
Most people would likely agree with much of what you said — but then you lost the bubble.
You’re right: Just because Reagan said something, doesn’t make it true. (It’s true without Reagan needing to say it, actually.) More to the point, the fact a sitting US President made such a statement only 30 years ago is notable, given how many people don’t understand that truth today.
And that’s where you lose it. It comes down, apparently, to what one believes constitutes freedom “from” religion. It is true that people should be free “from” government establishment or enforcement of religion. It is not true that people should be categorically “free from” being exposed to religion by virtue of government prohibitions on free speech or free exercise.
If, as you say, you “long for the day” when you won’t hear a fellow citizen say something to which you object, then you “long” for the death of freedom. Freedom is bolstered by the competition of ideas, not their suppression.
You might consider what would happen if someone longed for the day when they wouldn’t hear what you had to say.
Many have given their lives to protect the freedoms you “long” to see eliminated. Your sentiment is pitiable.
JD – you missed the bubble too — I did not say nor imply people are not free to “believe” (free thought) I may burn in hell if I don’t believe in a god or that I will never be free from “exposure”. Its great that folks can go to a church and praise their gods/idols or pray over their breakfast if that makes them happy. Why can’t this just be a private/personal matter instead of a public one? Reagan made the statement 30 years ago and there has been no revival and I don’t think there will ever be one given that “traditional values” of the past are not our values today and nor should they be. Your reply indicates to me that the “believers” get to make the rules (tyranny) and everyone else must get in line–sentiment pitiable, I think not. You are still my favorite religious advisor, so don’t take this personal! ;-)
Watchtower, you ARE free to believe whatever you want, irrespective of what others may say or think about what you believe. Who cares if they tell you you’re burning in hell or guaranteed a virginal paradise? If you don’t believe what they say, don’t let it bother you. If I don’t believe in Santa Clause, it makes no difference to me that someone tells me I’m wrong, and that Santa does, in fact, exist.
I disagree that freedom OF religion is the other side of the same coin as freedom FROM religion, at least in the way that you apparently articulate it. Being free to practice one’s religion, including proselytizing, does not amount to “forcing” one’s beliefs on another. Nobody can force me to believe anything. If they attempt to harm me (not in some imagined way, but real harm), then we have laws that address that.