Susan Stamper Brown wrote an article entitled “Religious Freedom in Our Military; This Is What Intolerance Smells Like” You can read the full article by clicking here. “Religious Freedom in Our Military; This Is What Intolerance Smells Like” The following is an excerpt from her article:
Lauding the Lt. Colonel’s statement in a Huffington Post anti-Christian hit piece April 16, (Mikey) Weinstein said, “We should as a nation effusively applaud Lt. Col. (Jack) Rich,” and said America should go further to “vigorously support the continuing efforts to expose pathologically anti-gay, Islamaphobic, and rabidly intolerant agitators for what they are: die-hard enemies of the United States Constitution. Monsters, one and all. To do anything less would be to roll out a red carpet to those who would usher in a blood-drenched, draconian era of persecutions, nationalistic militarism, and superstitious theocracy.”
Gee, if I didn’t know better, I’d think he was speaking about why we are fighting the war on terror.
Religious intolerance reached the proverbial Foggy Bottom in the same article when Weinstein described Christians as “those evil fundamentalist Christian creatures” who hide behind the “facades” of “family values” and “religious liberty.” The same attributes could be also pinned to America’s founders, whom I suppose Mr. Intolerance would also deem as subversives.
Christians are under attack in our society today. Christians believe in the Bible as the Word of God, and that the Bible contains the Ten Commandments and the way to the Father, via Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Today’s society does not like to hear the words, “Thou shalt not” anymore. They want to hear, “If it feels good, do it.” They want to live in sin and still be accepted by God and Christians as being spiritually enlightened. While Jesus forgave and practiced mercy and forgiveness, he also spoke harsh angry words to the Pharisees and hypocrites demanding fruits showing their true repentance. John the Baptist preached Repentance first, before baptism and Jesus did the same, telling us that a tree is known by its fruit, and the inside of the cup should be as clean as the outside.
While we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, we still have to ask for forgiveness and turn toward Him instead of toward the world for our source of strength and comfort. We are to strive for the dignity afforded to creatures who are made a little lower than the angels, instead of trying to out perform the animal kingdom in their crude and base behaviors.
Religious liberty entitles all to worship in their own way. The world says all ways lead to God or the Force. Christians say the only way to God is through Jesus Christ as our sacrifice and eternal High Priest. Because this is no longer popular in today’s society, Christians are labeled non-conformists and combatants. Our soldiers fight for our liberty, the liberty to worship our God freely, they should not have to be threatened with court-martial for sharing their faith in a civilized manner.
Susan says that the military is seeing a push against Christianity labeling Jews, Christians, Catholics and Mormons as extremists alongside Al Qaeda. How have we reached this point in America? Our founding fathers all made statements about the need for the Bible and God as our moral compass. The Ten Commandments were proudly posted in our government buildings. The Pledge of Allegiance and prayer before classes and government functions was a common sight uniting us all as Americans, a nation who honored God as their source of wisdom and provision.
Today, Love and Tolerance does not allow for Christians to openly talk about their faith, and we are raising a generation that does not know their God. Instead of family values, they are taught to explore alternative lifestyles and to accept all as pleasing to God and man.
But, consider the following about our future generation and what it says about this generation. See if you walk away with the same sick feeling as I did.
Since the 1950s, the number of single family homes has consistently increased to the point of catastrophe. Today 14 million single parents are responsible for 28 million children. Economically, a single parent is likely to bring less income home. This equates to fewer opportunities for such vital necessities as education. Time to make ends meet takes time – time that is spent away from the children who need a parent’s guiding influence. Absent a parent’s guidance, children become subject to higher dropout rates, higher risk of dangerous sexual behaviors and pregnancies, higher chances of drug and alcohol abuse, etc.
Hollywood used to portray every actor/actress on-screen with a cigarette in their hand. Smoking was implied to be cool. Then an awareness of the dangers of smoking increased and the ‘cool’ images disappeared.
Drinking and drugs are still in the everyday media, and is the new cool. 21% of high school seniors say they get high and 41% of seniors say they drink alcohol. Immature behavior is then amplified due to being under the influence. Drunk driving, poor grades and attendance, anti-social and violent behavior among many other things are the results.
Children are growing up too fast, partaking of adult activities with serious consequences. Sex is a very popular portrayed subject matter. Movies, TV, the internet, everywhere a kid turns he or she is bombarded with sexual suggestions. The Secret Lives of an American Teenager and Teen Mom are a couple of the more explicit ones appealing to young people. Our young kids listen to music with many sexual innuendos, with “How low can you go” and “Baby let me sex you up”, and then we wonder why kids are having sex as early as 10 or 11 and teen pregnancies are on the rise. The concept of childhood is being wiped out.
A child’s education is the foundation from which he or she will be able to for forth out into the world and build a life. Schools play a major role in this endeavor, and should be a safe place of learning. In many instances schools can be a war zone. Not just bullying, but serious violence. 284 kids were murdered due to school violence during the past decade. Shootings, stabbings, fighting, and suicides are becoming commonalities at schools.
Our children have learned that the measure of success and happiness in life is how much stuff you have. The concept of earning what you get or the idea that sometimes you don’t need some things has been lost and discarded. The average adult is more than $15,000 in credit card debt at any given time. Our mentality has become one of getting what we want when we want it, ingrained in us since childhood, and carried over into adulthood.
20% of American children are obese. Not chubby, but obese. Video games, TV, the internet and fast food are part of the blame. Sedentary lifestyles lead to overweight leads to being ridiculed from their peers. Low self-esteem, depression and health concerns as high blood pressure, and diabetes all can result from too much time with entertainment and snacks.
America used to sustain itself with making its own products through manufacturing and then turning around and selling those products. Now we are more of service industry, with manufacturing outsourced to other countries. Customer service jobs are lower paying than blue-collar jobs, which means not enough income to support a family. Kids are graduating with no desire to go to college because they know there is no guarantee they will find a job once they graduate. In the past a high school senior could go to work in a factory for the rest of his or her life and make a good living. They could survive without a college degree, but today a graduate from college with multiple degrees will still not find work that pays enough to sustain a decent lifestyle.
The federal poverty level is $22,050 for a family of four. 21% of all children are considered in poverty. Just to cover basic expenses for a family of four you would need a salary of $45,000. This means that nearly 50% of our children are living in poverty. Half of those kids receive no government assistance because their parents earned more than $22,050 that year. Poverty impedes learning and contributes to social and behavioral problems. Single Mom or single Dad cannot afford a tutor or a counselor to help with this problem. If society could stop being so materialistic all kids could have what they need instead of what they want and this would go a long way in decreasing violence and bullying in schools.
Most folks tend to focus on themselves and not the whole. We see problems as affecting them and not me/us. When we hear that America’s children are the fattest among Western Nations, this doesn’t sting. When we learn that America’s children lay educationally behind other industrialized nations, we don’t cringe. There is very little sense of collective identity of people, as Americans. Our children our not properly educated and guided. There was a day when every child would begin the school day by standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. They were taught that the Fourth of July had significance. These practices are long gone and so is our sense of identity and sense of common destiny. With so many diverse nationalities, races and ethnic groups that comprise America, the one common bond we all have with one another is that we are Americans.
Is this the future generation we want running our country and influencing our global world? My generation is guilty of drug experimentation, the hippie movement, running rampant with sexual freedom, abusing alcohol and creating our fair share of violence, encouraging easy divorce, living with a spouse outside of wedlock, dropping out of church, pursuing material goods, accumulating degrees after our name, only to find that non of it satisfies the inner man’s hunger for his creator. Our children have reaped the sins of their fathers and our grandchildren our today’s future generation growing up without a moral compass to guide them on the storm-tossed seas without their Christian God.
Love and Tolerance will not help them get along in a world intent on self destroying itself. Love and Tolerance will only pave the way for the other gods of this world to come out of hiding into the open for all to see who they are really worshiping. The gods of New Age and the Occult are just as active today as they were in the Days of Noah and in the Days of Sodom and Gomorrah. In a world where every mans ways are right in his own eyes, our grandchildren’s generation will be a generation that does not know their God – Jesus Christ.