gripe, gripe, gripe....under God...

I saw a newspaper story about a prayer breakfast and the reverend who called for a return to Christian values in America. Well, that’s all well and good, except we’re not all Christian and maybe we don’t agree on these so-called values.
It’s always been my contention that you can have values and morals regardless of religion. What they truly mean by returning to their religious values is not values at all, but beliefs. And beliefs are merely opinions. Everyone is entitled to them, but we are not entitled to force ours on everyone else.
So returning to these Christian ideals is a mistake in a country that proclaims religious freedom.
I’m not religious and yet I still have values and morals without believing in God. How did that happen?
Let’s see, I believe in things like common sense, honesty, hard work, integrity. Good solid words that should be universal. What these people contend to be values are things like no rights for gays, no abortions, family ideas. Things that they are entirely entitled to have differing opinions on, but they are not morals. They are opinions. What they are really calling for is a return to their ideas and their way of life. Not everyone wants that.
Bush did not receive a mandate to push Christian ideas on the rest of us by picking anti-abortion Supreme Court justices. To truly be American is to let others think things that you don’t like. It’s that old axiom, I may not like what you believe, but I’ll fight like hell for your right to believe it. Or words to that affect.
I don’t mind them holding these values. What I do mind is them telling everyone else that those are American values. They are not.
This nation was not founded to be a Christian paradise, it was founded to be a place where all religions could have freedom but were united by American values. We can disagree on those values, but we must separate a church mandated ideology from real world every day life.
In the war between religion and science, science wins because there are facts to back it up.

Now, to a quote by this reverend, he says that 9/11 was allowed to happen by God to wake us up and bring America back to him. Now to believe this you must first believe in God. No, this was not an act of God, but an act of man. If religious types wish to interpret it this way, then fine. But that belief should not guide are actions. Then we have a war of religion. And how can a religion claim to be better than another. Where’s the morality in that? That I’m better than you simply because you don’t believe what I believe? I don’t find that very moral.

To say that America needs to recover it’s Christian heritage is absurd. There is no state religion and religion has no place in state. Beliefs are a private thing. They say this is one nation under God. Well, feel free to interpret that to whatever God you see fit.

A return to Christian values is an insult to every single non-Christian in this country who is every bit as patriotic as they are. We are united not be religion, but by nation. We are all Americans and as such we hold differing views and ideas, but values and morals hold no allegiance to any one religion.