Friday, May 1, 2009

Time for Christians to Fight

Christians missed a great opportunity to make a stand for Christ in 1962 and 1963. These are the years when the Supreme Court handed down their rulings abolishing prayer in public schools. Now I am not going to argue the legal merits of this issue. I am not even going to talk about the Constitutional issues involved. Instead I want to take an entirely different approach to the issue; one that I feel fits in with the nature of true Americans and devout Christians.

The day these decisions were handed down, all Christians should have immediately pulled their children out of the public school system. They should have either sent them to private schools, parochial schools, or home schooled them. They should have immediately followed this with a refusal to pay any taxes in support of the now "godless" system of public education, which is nothing more than indoctrination into the "religion" of secular humanism.

It should be known that I do not make these comments lightly. I understand what I am advocating. I also am putting my money where my mouth, and faith, is. I send all four of my children to private school. Is this something I can afford? The answer is no. It is only the provision of God which allows this to happen. I also know that it requires a great sacrifice by my wife, my family, and me. I am not tooting my own horn, I just want to let you know where I am coming from.

The time has come when we as Catholic and all Christians must be willing to take our place alongside the great witness of the martyrs. We must be willing to sacrifice our place in society for the message of the Gospel. If Caesar wants a "godless" school system then let him have one, but not with my children and not with my money.

The same goes with the issue of abortion. Since the government has decided to use tax payer monies to pay for abortions as well as embryonic stem cell research, at home and abroad, I feel a tremendous conflict is being pressed upon all Christians. I understand the Catechism's teachings concerning taxes and citizenship (CCC paragraph 2240). I also understand that immoral and unjust laws do not and should not be obeyed and in fact should be opposed.

The United States is unique in history in many ways. Unlike all other civilizations in the past and most in the present, we do not have a dictator, emperor, oligarchy, or theocracy which passes decrees that we must follow. We have a freedom to protest. We have the duty to peacefully assemble and petition our government for a redress of grievances. We have the right as American citizens and the duty as Christians to protest, but do we have the courage to suffer for protesting? The answer to that question will be the legacy of this generation of Christians.

Think about the poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller;

"When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me."

We had best speak out now while there is still someone to hear.





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