NICK AND JESSICA WHO?
BORROWED OPINIONS
The following was written and recited by Ben Stein on CBS TV Sunday Morning Commentary.
My confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry
Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crèche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.
I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the
Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?
I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a
joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"
In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.
I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."
Funny, how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny, how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing? Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more
worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it. No one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.
My Best Regards. Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein
Sorry, Tracy (and all), but although I understand why he's upset, he's not 100% correct. In fact, I think he's twisted facts to suit his agenda. Instead of complaining that we've "suppressed" discussion of God and stating that people believe "America is an explicity atheist country", he should be celebrating that we are all allowed to believe (or not believe) in whatever deity we choose. He needs only to look at history to see that this is a fairly new concept.
Hate knows no boundaries.
It's easy to dismiss any thoughtful commentary by merely attaching a political bias to it. Too bad. Start out by labeling him ". . .darling of the right." Finish with a statement to impune the man's character, "Hate has no boundaries."
I'm not sure which 'facts' in Ben's commentary that you have a problem with. I do appreciate Tracy sharing it with us anyway.
Here's one of his commentaries from a few years ago:
Religion and Politics
Ben Stein, June 26, 2005
Lately, there has been much gnashing of teeth in the media and on liberal talk radio about Protestant preachers urging their megaflocks to get involved in the fight against abortion on demand. There has also been a good amount of muttering about Republicans using churches to promote the vote--up or down--on a few of President Bush's nominees to the federal bench. And of course, there is ever more screaming about what secret plans the new Pope might have for controlling American Catholics in their views on abortion and homosexuality.
All of this, it is darkly hinted, is a violation of the Constitutional bans on the Establishment of a religion, a new and sinister development in political life, and a threat to the Republic.
What foolishness. Who was was leading the marchers heading towards the Pettus Bridge in ( or near ) Selma, Alabama forty years ago during the heyday of the Civil Rights movement? Ministers and nuns in clerical garb. Who was there in Birmingham? Again, men and women of the cloth. What was the greatest political/moral figure of the twentieth century in America? A Protestant minister, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Who was leading us from the pulpit, sounding out fury at the seemingly endless Vietnam war? The Reverend William Sloan Coffin, a minister of the Gospel. Who was at all of the anti-war marches? Ministers and priests and rabbis. No one was complaining about that, for some reason.
Who thundered against slavery and urged on the Civil War? Henry Ward Beecher and other men of faith in the north.
This is what has always been going on in political life in America. The political is the moral. And the moral is the political.
Men and women of faith have always been involved in political/moral issues as long as there has been politics and as long as there has been religion. (Think of Moses urging the politically explosive issue of freeing the children of Israel from bondage, or of Jesus telling followers it was fine to pay taxes to Caesar.)
The only new thing is that now it's conservatives marching for life and preaching for life, not ministers marching for civil rights or disarmament. But surely men and women of the cloth are not just allowed but commanded to assert their moral beliefs on issues of supreme importance. Men and women who wear the cloth do not check their first amendment rights and their moral duties when they take their vows. They never have, and they never will. And we are far better for it.
I don't think Ben is being hateful in anyway.
Even if he is the darling of the righties.
Even though I believe in a firm separation of church and state, their is some merit to what he calls the "thought process".
I don't agree with the atheist statement, or the overly anthropomorphic view of God.
To me, this is the crux of the commentary:
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.
I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."
We could make this point with or without ANY religous notions.
Unfortunately there will always be hate in some form or other. Let's all hope that someday love will conquer all.
~loving tolerance~
That's what seems to be missing today. It's how I want to live and I aspire to be around people who look at the world with that as a goal. Our world is larger and encompasses more differences but loving tolerance is still the method I think works best.
A while back I had some 'puter problems my own self. No serious problems but I did lose my bookmarks. I use to go to Ben's website and read his latest thoughts now and then and it's been a while. So, thanks for reminding me.
As far as love and tolerance goes, I'm one of the most lovable and tolerant people I know! However, I have my limits. Mess with my wife in any way and you're on my bad side. Abuse animals, don't let me find out. Abuse my animals and tolerance becomes a mere abstract idea.
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