Holy Week

As we make our way through the holiest week in the Christian calendar, I am struck by the amount of hate being spewed toward others in the name of the Christian faith.

Many of the posts I have seen propound putting God back in schools, government, and other secular institutions.  I would like to encourage all of my readers to go back to the document that founded our great country.  Count up the number of times you find the word "God" in the Constitution.  It should not take that much time.  In fact, there is not one single mention of God anywhere to be found.

In fact, the word religion also does not appear.  Nor does separation of church and state.  That phrase was actually Thomas Jefferson's interpretation of the Amendment.  The actual wording is, "Congress shall make NO law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. "

It seems that a large portion of the Christians in this country have forgotten how and why our country was formed.  The fact that the early settlers who came to the Americas fled to this continent because of religious persecution.  Those pilgrims were looking for a place to worship in their own way. Where along our timeline did that principle disappear?  

By enacting laws allowing discrimination on the basis of religion, states are in direct violation of the Amendment as to an establishment of religion.  In truth, the only tenet common across all religions, from Christianity to Wicca, is that of love.  Perhaps it is time the United States remembers that.

Love,

Jerri