Radiant HB councilwoman Jill Hardy is a devout member of the First Christian Church of Huntington Beach, whom I had the honor of accompanying in a heartfelt rendition of “God Bless America” at a Flag Day event a couple of years ago. She has emerged as the main spokesperson against the proposal to post “In God We Trust” in HB council chambers. As she pithily told the HB Independent: “I want to know about the motivation for this. If it’s a religious motivation then it doesn’t really belong in City Hall. If it’s a political motivation, I personally feel it’s taking the Lord’s name in vain, and I absolutely oppose that.”
Right on, Jill, couldn’t have said it better myself, and I do wonder how Cathy and Joe will answer. We’ll get to them in a future post, but the point many people miss is that the separation of church and state is meant to protect religion from politics at least as much as the converse.
Many of us feel that the high point of Christianity was its first few centuries, before Roman Emperor Constantine converted and made it the state religion. The state and religion should never mix; for one thing it creates too much concentrated power and potential for corruption and abuse. We saw the results in all the horrors that Church critics love to rehash—the Crusades, the Inquisition, all the religious wars and persecutions in Europe (which helped drive our ancestors to these shores) and worst of all the endless Dark Ages of enforced ignorance.
OK Jubal, I know that was all a long time ago. But even this past century shows that religion is at its worst when allied with state power (Pius XII making nice with the Nazis and ignoring the Holocaust) and at its best when removed from and opposed to it (brave religious dissidents in Communist states, Bishop Tutu fighting apartheid, the liberation theology movement in Latin America, and on and on.)
Religious folks should say “No, thank you,” to anything reeking of bringing religion and politics closer together. One remembers Jesus’ rage at the moneychangers desecrating his Father’s temple with their profane commerce; and one feels certain he would have reacted the same way seeing his Father’s name placed in mute approval overlooking the inevitably dirty dealings of the Huntington Beach City Council.
“It is written, `My house shall be called the house of prayer,’
but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
Vern, why do you mention Matt? He is not a priest nor a pastor…
Matt Cunningham just operates political consulting firm and “plays” neutral political blog editor when in reality, he is a absolutely biased, waiting to be hired………… for dollar selfish salesman!
Let’s go back to the “In God We Trust” motto to be displayed in the city chamber.
Vern, if you are a believer..meaning you are willing to follow the Jesus Christ as your only Savior. The subject motto sign
should not bother you…even the possible evil intent because God is stronger and greater than anything out there….yes, even George Bush!
Personally speaking I rather see the motto “In God We Trust” displayed in the so called your “dirty chamber” than a picture of George Bush because innocent public will read the sign in more positive way and your”dirty councilman” can be reminded of God watching over his shoulders while making his “shady dealings”.
Matt was part of a discussion we had on this topic on another thread.
SMS
Yeah, Sarah was all “Perhaps you’ve forgotten about the Inquisitions and crusades. This also disputes your theory that Christianity is less violent in its ‘conversion techniques.’ “
and Matt (“Jubal”) was all “Ah, the Crusades and the Inquisition. The two trusty, rusty arrows in the quiver of every anti-Christian polemicist. Let us speak of logic, then. Your premise is that Christians in America are trying to take over the government and impose a Christian State on America. You then imply that those American Christians are no better than Muslims who want to establish a Muslim state (with Shari’a law and all the rest.) I rebut that, so you then ping-pong from American Christians and reach back into the Middle Ages to change the subject to the hackneyed ‘it’s all our fault because of the Crusades’ trope.”
I find that a spot of pre-emption prevents a ton of BS sometimes.