Religions Thrive Under Secular Law

Bhanudas N. Nadpurohit,

You wrote:

"The Archbishop of Canterbury is right. Today we live in a global village with many religions.

"It appropriate that Great Britain takae the lead in this matter, as what Britain does today, the world does tomorrow. Moreover, Britain as the leading democracy,is emulated the world over hence it is essential, that they the lead."

Actually, as I pointed out in posts to two other threads on this topic, Archbishop Rowan is not leading, he's proposing that Britain regress to adopt the legal structure of the former Ottoman Empire.

The Ottomans viewed society as made up of different religious communities, each having its own law concerning matters of personal status such as marriage and divorce.

This is thoroughly at odds with the laws and concepts of Western Democracies and, where it's been adopted in places like Israel, the results have been very, very bad.

Remember, the religious courts, not the individual, determine if the individual is a member of a religious community, and which one. These courts may even disagree as to the answer.

Chaos and injustice follow from the very nature of this system.

some have said "Is Evil The Devil or Just Live Spelled Backwards?"

David wrote "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked."

Solomon wrote "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate."

Solomon also wrote,
"These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:"

It is written in Genesis

And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.

Do you see "seven are an abomination unto him:"
"vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold" "If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold" This is what is written in Matthew "Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation." "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven."

This is what your god said "Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." "And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice;"

Love thy Father "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil"
Fear thy Mother "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil"

"Is Evil The Devil" Ask yourself, are you the children of evil or the Devil.

Reverend Gaddy:
right on.

If we have any luck the next few years, it will become more transparent just how saturated our political process has become with Christian fundamentalism's gripping fingers, and how the right-wing has catered to (and been overtaken) with it. The whole concept that "government is the problem" has been taken magnitudes beyond the Saint Reagan attitude.

What I hope people will come to realize over the next generation is that the "government" should be us. We, the people, should be the government. We've had a non-functioning Republican-lead Congress over the last 7 years, who worked a whopping two days a week, to rubber-stamp legislation, and an abysmal lack of checks-and-balances toward the executive branch that should shock us all.

Fundamental Islamists have recently in history condemned several writers to the death sentence, recently the college student, and in yesterday's headlines has sentenced a woman to death in Saudi Arabia for "witchcraft." What next?

It is a slippery slope indeed to formalize a religion's ideas into the sacred, secular law.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is right. Today we live in a global village with many religions. It appropriate that Great Britain takae the lead in this matter, as what Britain does today, the world does tomorrow. Moreover, Britain as the leading democracy,is emulated the world over hence it is essential, that they the lead.

As it now stands you/they the framers are beating a dead horse. Religion has wiggled it's way into the government through the open door of 'official' religions. Scientologists, a new faith of some kind unknown to me is shut out, not an 'official' religion.

Why would a religion care? That was a question I asked when I learned that Scientologists were petitioning to be made official. The answer answers the question, taxes. Tax exemptions come via religion bypassing the constitution.

Taxes is the most spoken word in politics and has been for some time. I expect that taxes, the lack thereof for 'official' religions is the key. With all else being taxed to the crying point it makes perfect sense for the 'jobber' to claim his job is religious. That's as simple as identifying his TV network or winery etc with an 'official' religion, Pat Robertson, Robert Schuller, Christian Brothers etc etc etc. The way Tom Brokow touts 'faith' NBC must be edging in that direction -maybe a last ditch stand against cable TV.

The question is how to take the government back. The answer is as simple as either ANY or NONE in the 'official' religion department. There is no reason General Motors can't declare itself to be a faith based organization and become tax, (there's that word) free. They could even pause for a 10 second prayer 5 times a day and be way ahead of the game money wise.

I don't blame legitimate churches for wanting to remain tax exempt. However, it is in their best interest to become invisible to the government the way astrologers, fortune tellers etc are. The backlash will eventually come when obvious businesses and political organizations reap the tax exempt harvest under the banner of 'official' religions.

In jolly old England they're enjoying the fruits of 'official' religion with Islam piling on. It must be heartening to think of the next terror attack coming from a tax exempt facility using tax free money that is tax deductible as well. And we can avoid the terror attack by everyone becoming a Muslim. What! They terror attack each other.

The war on terror is lost unless the source of the terror is identified and brought in check. Threats of hell to children is the source. So if religions want to get government involved let's have a go at it. Arrest all those terrorists like Hagee who points his finger straight into the camera and repeats, "you're gonna go to hell" several times and frequently. Bring all terrorist to justice not just Muslims. Hell is terror max and the foundation of the three great faiths -in Devil.

Threatening a person with hell and then holding out the hand for money is robbery. It only works if the robbed were told hell is for real while they still believed Santa was for real.

Taxes is the key. Perhaps it would be a wise move for the legitimate religions to insist the constitution be upheld -no official religions. Then taxes will take care of themselves for the government cannot recognize an organization as a religious one or recognize a patch of real estate, Crystal Cathedral for example as a church.

Taxes like the weather is always talked about but nothing done about until it floods. I think I see the water rising.

http://www.hoax-buster.org/sellyoursoul for the big money goes to those leading the multitudes to hell -right here on earth for the multitudes can amend the constitution. Eventually one must ask what faith is in and not just accept "I believe" tax exempt as faith. The government has made some, "I believes" official and that's the problem.

The Muslims may be doing us a favor demanding equal recognition? They give us a good yardstick to measure church controlled states. Of course Christian controlled countries are all different. You bet. If "W" had only gotten the pope's permission before...

Well put Welton!

As James Madison wrote:

"... the number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people, have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the State" (Letter to Robert Walsh, Mar. 2, 1819).

Most religions would suppress a minority or upcoming religion. Take the days of our early Christianity. If the Romans were not liberal in their views about Jesus and his fledgling flocks, Christianity may not have had an opportunity to grow. So today if another or new religion were to arise, the United States of America would play host for that religion.