Panera and God

A few days back, Saturday to be exact, I was drawn into the kind of discussion we are all told not to speak in, yet all desire to do so. That is correct we were discussing religion, politics, and social/moral values. I guess we got bored with talking about the weather and the merit of a salad for dinner. Overall, I have to say the conversation went very well. Myself and the person in whom I was speaking with disagreed on nearly every point, except that we often did agree that we disagreed.

From this conversation, though, much was learned. In the specific area of religion we found a hidden truth that lies in all people’s life. We found the point in which a decision has to be made, a decision that can change the course of your pilgrimage through life.

We were speaking specifically of the infallible nature of the Bible. I, seeing the Bible as the “God breathed word” and my antagonist (man I love calling her that) seeing it in not such a light. Her position was that the Bible may have been mistranslated or may contain potential errors. This, however, did not negate her spirituality, but instead caused her to explore other areas that she felt may contain spiritual truth.

This is an age old argument as to whether or not the Bible is wholly true or partly false. It is also one that we did not resolve in that small chain café in which we ate. Instead we came to a point of separation that was only the width of a hair.

In some point in our respective lives we both came to the point of taking an honest look at this sacred Christian text. I found the truth in the words and quickly dove into the faith and found no errors, believing God wholly and singularly.

My female counter part in Saturday’s discussion took another route. When she investigated the Bible and weighed it for its worth she found that she could not believe every last word to be fully accurate and therefore branched off to continue in her search of truth. This is the hair width that I mentioned.

At some time we both came to the same point of decision, and we both went in different directions. In the end you both believe in every last word of the Bible and therefore receive Christ, or you find potential fault with any given scripture and are unable to receive Christ. To those who believe that you can have Christ and have fault in the Bible I would say that you are gravely mistaken.

If even one line, one word, is proven to be a lie then every single aspect of the Bible comes into question. The fact that god created the Earth would be something to doubt. The fact that Christ died for us becomes doubtful. The fact that Christ will return again is something of legend. We either believe it all or we believe none.

It is an all or nothing approach. You cannot have a little bit of the truth. Christ tells us to be hot or to be cold, but to be lukewarm is to be spit from His mouth. From my perspective my friend has missed the boat, but I thank her nonetheless for helping push this vital aspect even further into my spiritual mold. I pray that she, as well as other, will one day choose to be hot instead of cold.

God and Government

Over the years I have become more and more concerned with the trend of removing any form of Christianity from our public places. People have gone through great efforts to form organizations that battle to have God, particularly our Christian God, removed from all areas of government, public service, or public property. In some cases we have even seen private property rights attacked in the name of this issue. The charge of these organizations, primarily non-profit in structure, is that there should be a complete absence of God in all public affairs; essentially we should become spiritually sterile. To this mindset I must fully disagree.

I find that Larry Schweikart, author of A Patriot’s History of the United States: From Columbus’ Great Discovery to the War on Terror explained it well when he wrote, “separation of church and state meant freedom to worship, not from worship.” Often it is neglected that in early America the question of God’s existence was not as prevalent as it is in today’s collegiate circles and that the colonists were simply stating that government was not to dictate to the people what their worship was to contain. This train of thought developing at a time in which the people were living in British colonies under British rule that had a particular British church.

Our country was developed under the primary principle of liberty, or freedom. The forefathers did not desire to control the personal choices of any one man or any group of men. In stating that there was to be a separation of church and state they believed they were protecting the inalienable right of liberty. However, in the two centuries since the drafting of our great Declaration we have seen an oppressive counter to religion come forth. In the name of supposed religious freedom opponents of Christianity have instead imposed anti-religious oppression.

These anti-religion groups have spread their oppressive ways by taking legal action in communities in which only a minority desires their services. Any group that walks into a community and thrusts its thoughts and beliefs on that community is stripping the people of their liberty. Wherever a community exists that has a majority that stands in agreement to the worship or acknowledgement of a particular faith system, then that community has the right to represent it in their public spaces and forums. If in this community a small portion of the citizens lies in opposition of the majority, then the minority has the right to petition their neighbors, but they have no right to force an alteration of policy.

In conclusion I will say that I fully agree with the philosophy of separation of church and state, however, I do not believe that the separation should be of such a nature that will cause others to be alienated. We live in a nation of democracy that has as its underlying principle that we decide policy at the polls. When we apply that principle we are compelled in the best interest of liberty to let those communities that choose democratically to promote a Christian faith system to do so and those who choose to remain neutral to also do as they choose. By this course of action we will move closer to the liberty most desire.

As a side note I wish to add that in 2 Corinthians 3:17 it reads, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” It would do us well to remember this scripture as we move forward and to meditate on this as we seek counsel as to how we are to resolve the issue at hand.