MORE SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY CHURCH

America A Christian Nation?

"When American Christians today cry for a return to the founding principles, what they have in mind, without realizing it, is less the philosophy of Washington and Jefferson than that of the Pilgrim settlers 150 years earlier. There one finds the up-front, openly Christian proclamations:

"In you name of God Amen. We whose names are underwritten... doe by these presents solemnly & mutually in ye presence of God, and one of another covenant, & combine ourselves togeather into a civill body politick..."

~ The Mayflower Compact, 1620

"We shall find that God of Israel is among us when he shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantation: "The Lord make it lie that of New England." For we must consider that we shall be a city on a hill."

~ John Winthrop, on board the Arbella, 1630,

en route to become the first governor of the

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Thus it was entirely logical, according to a 1641 Massachusetts law, that "if any man...shall have or worship any other god, but the Lord God, he shall be put to death" ...On a lesser scale, people also were expected to be diligent in educating their offspring. If they were not, "the selectmen [town councilmen], on finding children ignorant, may take them from their parents and put them into better hands, at the expense of their parents."

How would you like to put that power in the hands of big government today?"

(Dean Merrill, Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry Church; Zondervann Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI; 1997; pg. 92-93)

Just some thoughts...

How bout it? Would you like the government under Obama, or for that matter Bush, to come take the kids, give 'em away, and force you to pay child support? And whose version of Christianity shall the government enforce? Shall we be Catholic (beer and gambling for all), Baptist (No beer or gambling at all), or how about whichever flavor the President prefers? Obama would be president and his pastor, Jeremiah Wright would be Lord High Poobah of the most holy American See.

Perhaps we should simply go back to the faith of our Puritan forefathers? They sacrificed all to find a place to practice their religion as they saw fit. Of course they didn't extend that freedom to the native Americans living on the land they stole. The very pious Pilgrims would never have stolen from one another, but they stole from the native people's whose empty Summer lodgings they found.

If Jesus were the kind of God who stole and oppressed, the way our forefathers did to the indigenous peoples, I'd kick him to the curb and get a new God.