My God is better than your God
Oh, I don’t know if this is too controversial for a local progressive blog here in snow covered WNY. But what the heck. You aren’t supposed to talk about politics (oops) so why not religion.
It is value time at the progressive corner and separation of church and state is a value worth preserving.
I read this LTE in the D&C by Jack Snare of Irondequoit which I found puzzling and worthy of addressing. A brief summary is: Superbowl coaches Dungy and Smith, through the practices of their faith earned them trips to the Superbowl. Ok, but this graf was disturbing.
If the courts, business leaders, politicians, educators and religious leaders followed the practices of these two Christian coaches, who are my brothers in Christ, perhaps then, this country could truly be a “nation under God,” instead of the god of this world.
First off I find it hard to believe that God is a football fan. For example, was God cheering against the New England Patriots so Coach Dungy could advance to the Superbowl? Throwing off Tom Brady’s passes a little? Of course not.
How does this explain, oh I don’t know, Mark Spitz or Muhammad Ali? Certainly not brothers in Christ.
Now before I get jumped on here, I truly believe the intent of this LTE was to praise two coaches whose achievements in this life should be rewarded. Great. Reward them, they both deserve it.
Nevertheless the selected graf I found disturbing was using faith as a basis of policy. Sorry - not this America.
I don’t want my public officials using religion as a basis of policy. Whose religion? What about the people who are not “brothers in Christ”. Vote them off the island?
I’m afraid we lose a fundamental value of America. The ability to practice a religion of one’s choosing. I certainly don’t want a religion that is imposed.
Do we really want to go there?
Spot On! A slippery slope which divide and conquer instead of unity and democracy to resolve our pressing local issues.
Don’t you know that the team that prays the hardest wins? Says so right there in the NFL bylaws…
Seriously, Frank Reich led Buffalo to come back from a 32 point deficit against Houston in a playoff game in the dark ages. He is now a motivational speaker and he says in his bio: “While each camera continued to roll, he gave God the glory for his part in this historic win.â€ÂÂ
A few weeks later, Reich’s Buffalo Bills (with Reich at QB more than half the game) lost the most lopsided Super Bowl in history. Apparently, his bio claims “God had other plans…â€ÂÂ
See some days, God listen to the prayers, and other days, well he just has other plans. I can’t figure it out …
Stlo7 says: “I’m afraid we lose a fundamental value of America. The ability to practice a religion of one’s choosing.†The battle we have to fight is that a growing number of people don’t agree we with that statement. They want us to practice one religion and one religion only  their religion. They might never admit that publicly, but that is what they want and their actions are consistent with that belief.
I agree which is why we need to continue to bring this to light.
And that is a VERY dangerous thing.
Maybe you only get a limited number of miracles per season, just like you get a limited number of time outs per game.
May I recommend Sam Harris’s nice little essay (book) “Letter to a Christian Nation”.