The Star Spangled Banner

[crixus]

I really like "God Bless America" too.

I'm really surprised that the ACLU hasn't protested Major League Baseball for playing God Bless America during the games. Let's hope they don't read this and start that crazy ball rolling. :blink:

 

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I'm really surprised that the ACLU hasn't protested Major League Baseball for playing God Bless America during the games. Let's hope they don't read this and start that crazy ball rolling. :blink:

It is my impression that although a nuisance, the ACLU has minimum funding for legal actions.
It is their achilles heel.

Because of this lack of resources, they do not generally initiate litigation unless there is a person or group with an issue or unless an issue can make big press.

It's also my impression that atheist organizations are not as short of cash as the ACLU.
From time to time they utilize the legal group to 'front for their agenda', which is to shut down the public and private exercise of the Christian religion.

That being said, it is my personal opinion that aggressive atheist organizations, as well as certain persons of fame and note, operate out of cowardice.

Although a high moral position of general opposition to religion may be stated publicly and privately by militant atheists, they seem to spend an inordinate amount of time assaulting Christianity. Hence my assumption that atheist organizations are conflicted in their standards, if not in fact cowardly in the public exercise of their agenda.

They do not do so against Islam, neither do they openly insult Mohammad as they do Jesus.
One million angry offended Christians do not present a threat.
One million angry offended Muslims do, and despite the pretention of a high moral ground the basic character of militant atheism is abject cowardice.
The atheist fears what would happen should they offend Islam.
Therefore, their high moral standard concerning religion is not really that high, or moral, or courageous.

"A return to atheism has all the appeal of a return to adolescence."
Professor Paul C. Vitz

 

[rockytopva]

I'm really surprised that the ACLU hasn't protested Major League Baseball for playing God Bless America during the games. Let's hope they don't read this and start that crazy ball rolling. :blink:

Don't give them any ideas!

 

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Let's look at something. A new idea that crossed my mind.

The President cannot touch Medicare, Medicade, Social Security, or other mandatory spending. He can't touch it.
Discretionary spending is $660B, right? This is the money he can cut.
Now, I don't know how much of the DoD he could cut. Maybe half?


Our deficit is $1.4T. If the President could completely cut the DoD along with all other discretionary spending... We'd just start to break even.


That is the terrible financial condition we are in right now. You can cut every penny the President could cut, and the entire military, and the Social programs that FDR started would still be bankrupting this country all on their own.


That's why this isn't a problem that will be solved by cuts. It's not a problem that will be solved by any method OTHER THAN an act of Congress shutting Social Security and Medicare down.

The problem with the uS budget is that a lot of it is hidden in discretionary spending. All the hollering about the budget is merely academic.

There isn't any budget.
Hasn't been for decades.

Wars aren't funded from the military budget, they are funded from discretionary spending and nobody really knows the precise amount of discretionary spending.
Want to improve government spending? Try stopping ALL discretionary spending. It won't happen of course, but it would be interesting to see.

The fact is that NO president can touch military spending.
They fear assasination. Kennedy was a lesson as was the attempt on Reagan. After Ron's experience he kowtowed to the bankers and the military. Go back and do a quick review of the events of his presidency. There was a marked change in attitude after his trip to the hospital.

The Pentagon is now a government unto itself, beyond civilian control. ANYTHING it wants, it gets.

Glenn Beck recently did a series on the Fed, painting it as the great financial criminal of modern times. I notice that Beck NEVER implicates the pentagon in ANY of his scenarios of disaster. Nobody does. It's unpatriotic you know. Beck seems to vascillate between George Soros and whatever other entity he can come up with, but NEVER the pentagon. Ever notice that? Ever wonder why?

There is only one solution to the current national dilemma and that is secession.

Short of that, the only hope that remains is the second coming. Not much of a comfort when you consider rising prices and the threat of military conscription for our young. I'm getting on in years, so either way it doesn't matter much to me, but what about our young? What kind of life will they have, or doesn't anybody really care?

America has sold it's birthright to the future for a bowl of stale porridge today.
If Esau ran for president he'd win by a landslide.

 

[horsecamp]

So answer the question. Should Hitler's kids have honored their Father's decision to murder millions of Jews?

NO .
BECAUSE THAT BREAKS ANOTHER COMMANDMENT thou shall not murder .. Yet they should honor him as the one God placed over them as their dad...

by honoring him in spite of his sins they please God.. just as your kids honored you even though you and me are also sinners.

im not pickin on any one-- just joining in on the conversation :)

 

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"Should Hitler's kids have honored their Father's decision to murder millions of Jews?"

NO .
BECAUSE THAT BREAKS ANOTHER COMMANDMENT thou shall not murder .. Yet they should honor him as the one God placed over them as their dad...

by honoring him in spite of his sins they please God.. just as your kids honored you even though you and me are also sinners.

im not pickin on any one-- just joining in on the conversation :)

I am in basic agreement with your position - "NO".

You bring up an interesting point, however. Many posts on this board (and I'm not picking out any individual) betray a lop sided Biblically based patriotic attitude. For example, if an argument is set forward that American leaders are wrong <<<insert your own list of grievances here>>> and that their policies ought to be opposed by any means possible, the response generally quotes Romans 13:1-3.

Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God.
Rom 13:1

But what if those "higher powers" are opposed to God and His ordinances in the first place. Modern authorities such as Islam may be considered to be higher authorities in the countries where they rule. What if the government of America became Muslim? The Imam of the Ground Zero mosque, who was touted as being very moderate, has recently called for the jailing of anyone who did not recognize Islam as THE ONLY religion. Does Romans 13:1 apply in this instance?

Therefore he that resisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of God: and they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgment.
Rom 13:2

If a Christian resists the law of a Muslim country to convert to Islam, is that man violating the ordinance of God?

For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. And wouldest thou have no fear of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise from the same:
Rom 13:3

I don't know what sort of experience people had who lived under Roman rule since I wasn't there at the time. It does appear, however, by looking closely at Romans 13:3 that St. Paul had a very kind appreciation of Roman governance. Paul never knew about NAZI attitudes toward Jews. If St. Paul had lived in 1930's Germany, he would have been arrested for wearing Jewish skin.

These verses are applicable for obediance to good government. In the cases when a religious government subverts the call of God (as in Islam) or the rights of humans to live (NAZI government), then the application of these verses ought to be examined closely. Romans 13:1-3 DOES NOT equate to "my country right or wrong" as many believe.

IMO holding to Rom 13:1-3 in times of national moral and legal crisis may further the purposes of wickedness rather than restrain it.

I might add here that I give credence to those who argue that the wickedness of government and the militarization of America begins in the churches and is supported by them.

People who quote Romans 13:1-3 in support of American policies should be reminded that the government of NAZI Germany used these same verses to reinforce German patriotism and German human rights violations.

We need to support CHRISTIAN policies, not American ones.

 

[Duckybill]

Christians honoring their parents has absolutely nothing to do with what kind of parents they have. It's like 1 Peter 2:17 [sup]17 [/sup]Honor the king. Guess who the king was. All Christians are to honor their parents, for our own good.

Ephesians 6:2-3 (NKJV)
[sup]2 [/sup]"Honor your father and mother," which is the first commandment with promise: [sup]3 [/sup]"that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.

 

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An 18 year old boy recently got a tattoo, in opposition to his parent's wishes.
The tattoo was a cross with an American flag draped over it.
The skin illustration (which is against O.T. law BTW) was done under his right arm over his rib cage.

Now he thinks he has Jesus on his side. On his side, get it?

Bad pun, true story.