Featured Rattlesnakes?

Thanks for your usual kind words.

 

You have posted a lot of things for which I have considerable respect. The above is not one of them. Comparing the acts of Christ upon His second coming to the acts of any earthly person of faith (including Christians) lacks any credibility - we are all sinners; He is not.

Separation of church and state - church shall not run the state; state shall not run the church - is a key principle of the US system of government. Christians should understand that the only biblically valid theocracy on earth will be when Christ returns. Islam utterly denies that separation principle, and holds that religion (Islam) should be the state, that all governments should be Islamic theocracies.

 

I think that it is a holdover from ancient oriental despotism wherein the head of state was god. The Romans toyed with the idea and called their Caesars as gods but it was never something that the average Roman actually believed. However, in the orient, including the Arab states, is was often true that the head of state was also head of the religion. Iran would be a good example of that today--ancient oriental despotism still lingering.

I disagree with the notion of separation of church and state because it is non-constitutional. The Constitution says that Congress shall make no law to establish a church such as England had and that Congress shall make no law preventing the free exercise of worship. Does that mean that a church can use heroin as part of worship?

What is happening in America today is that Christianity is under attack illegally as government tries to control speech about Christianity in a blatant power grab. At the same time, the government is trying to make an accommodation with Islam. Even Bush hosted Ramadan dinners, etc. When you look at the fact that our wars with Islam began with Jefferson and have continued to this day as our oldest enemies, then I think that it is time to abandon our policy of respect for Islam as a theology and brand Islam as Stalinist and fascist.

 

The source (jihadwatch.org) specifies that Islam is a religion. Can't have it both ways guys...either it's a religion or not. If jihadwatch.org has it wrong, you can't use it as a source.

 

Your cohort believes Islam is not a religion. Have you been following this thread?

 

Wow! Reading through this thread is frieghtening and embarrassing. That a cornerstone of our countries founding, religious freedom, could be so easily dismissed, simply shameful. Our Baptist and non-baptist forefathers are weeping.

 

Bigotry doesn't look good you, doesn't look good on anyone.

 

Good post! :applause:

The words are yours, but the bolding is mine and worth remembering.

 

Please link that.

Here is what Jihad Watch says in part:

f. How can a violent political ideology be the second-largest and fastest-growing religion on earth?
It should not be surprising that a violent political ideology is proving so attractive to much of the world. The attractive power of fascist ideas has been proven through history. Islam combines the interior comfort provided by religious faith with the outward power of a world-transforming political ideology. Like the revolutionary violence of Communism, jihad offers an altruistic justification for waging death and destruction. Such an ideology will naturally draw to it violent-minded people while encouraging the non-violent to take up arms themselves or support violence indirectly. Because something is popular hardly makes it benign.
Furthermore, the areas in which Islam is growing most rapidly, such as Western Europe, have been largely denuded of their religious and cultural heritage, which leaves Islam as the only vibrant ideology available to those in search of meaning.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/islam-101

 

Section 1.a. from your link.

 

I'm not defining Islam in particular. I'm defending what America is all about. Our founding fathers felt the need to say that we would not use religion as a litmus test for public office. If you wish to exclude Muslims from public office then you go against the principles of this nation.

 

Excerpted from "Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an"
[He] sais “neither Pagan nor Mahamedan [Muslim] nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion.”
 — Thomas Jefferson, quoting John Locke, 1776