Imagine the Quaker
an erstwhile mirror site for weblog on newquaker.com
archives | newquaker.comSaturday, June 07, 2003
More religious vaudeville. Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is back in federal court this month to appeal a lower court order that he remove from the Alabama Judicial Building a 5,280-pound cube-shaped granite monument bearing the Ten Commandments. Judge Moore installed the monument in August 2001, and the issue has been in and out of court since then, pitting the ACLU and other church-state separatists against Moore, D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries, and other groups supporting the monument's message. Moore still displays a handmade plaque of the Commandments in his outer chamber, a trophy from an earlier skirmish with forces opposing his efforts to use public property to promote his religious aims.
Why does he think that he is in any way promoting the Good News of Jesus Christ by these petulant actions? Dr. Kennedy should know better than to encourage this kind of play acting. Like efforts to promote "prayer in school," these merely end up alienating the very people who would benefit most from an honest appreciation of God's purpose for us on earth. Do people really believe that the world will change simply because prayer is allowed in public schools? How is the on-again, off-again battle over Darwinism versus Creationism any different from Godzilla versus Mothra? Whose heart is changed by looking at a four-foot block of granite? This is like helping people to see by poking them in the eyes.
Alas, that is just the stuff of religion and the very reason why Christians should actively oppose such attempts to coerce people into accepting surrogates of our faith. The Ten Commandments is not the whole of our relationship with the Father. In fact, the Commandments do not make sense (at least not in the way Christ intended) if we lack the understanding that comes from faith, the very faith that is purchased by the Holy Spirit. We ought not to create obstacles to faith—and yet that is precisely what 2.6 tons of granite can do.
Dear Heavenly Father, teach us humility in our knowledge of you and your ways. Show us the proper means to challenge unbelievers, in ways that promote, rather than hinder, your purpose for us. Let your Spirit lead us in heeding the Great Commission and lead us away from vain efforts to force upon our neighbors a faith that is really not our prerogative to give. In the name of Jesus, your Son, we ask this. Amen.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 2:38 AM
Friday, June 06, 2003
Be afraid, be very afraid. Tom Ridge finally admits that his goofy "Homeland Security Advisory System" may actually lack credibility among the American people. Where on earth has he been all this time? His intelligence staff doesn't tell him that Americans laugh at this crayon-colored, grade-school scheme? I think we should be worried.
Ridge's Department of Homeland Security introduced the "Homeland Security Advisory System"—a simple, five-level, color-coded scale of threat levels, from green to red—to communicate to the public the general severity of current terrorist threats against the nation. You can consult it at the website of the US Department of Homeland Security or you can get the "Homeland Security Threat Monitor" as a desktop accessory for your personal computer. Watch the level change from yellow to orange and see if you feel any more secure knowing that the agency that invented this system is watching out for you and your family.
posted by Merle Harton, Jr. 10:41 AM
© Merle Harton, Jr. All rights reserved. Biblical references are NIV® unless otherwise noted.
