According to the latest American Religious Identification Survey, nearly 30 million Americans, or 14% of the adult population, “do not subscribe to any religious identification.” That number is up from the previous 1990 survey which found that 14.3 million, or 8% of the adult population, subscribed to no religion. These surveys clearly indicate that there is a growing number of Americans “without faith.” In 1990, 90% of American adults considered themselves part of a faith-based group; that figure has now dropped to 81%.
It is not difficult to see that a trend is taking place here, but it is important for us to …
determine exactly what is happening and why. While our country has always maintained a non-denominational mindset and has sustained the freedom to practice the religion of one’s own choosing, what we need to determine is whether or not we support and protect the “practice” of agnosticism? There is a difference between simply not practicing any religion and the practice of subscribing to Atheism with the intent to abolish religion in this country. There are Atheist American citizens with that very objective in mind. Just go to their website and you can read all about it.
On Election Day we can choose to vote for a candidate who during hard times turns to God in prayer, or one who does not. We can choose a candidate who firmly affiliates himself with religion, or one who vaguely ascribes to having some sort of faith. Barack Obama resigned from Trinity United Church of Christ in May, 2008 after church pastor Jeremiah Wright made “controversial remarks about U.S. foreign policy and other matters.” Obama said he intends to join another church after the election. The question here is: Where is he practicing his faith now? More importantly, why was he affiliated with this church for over 20 years? There are two potential answers: either he never went, or he subscribed to their beliefs. Obama wrote in his book that his mother felt that “organized religion too often dressed up closed-mindedness in the garb of piety, cruelty and oppression in the cloak of righteousness.” Is it possible that he still lives by this mindset? Apparently they don’t share the same belief as Ben Franklin who said “…Wise governments have always thought Religion necessary for the well-ordering and well-being of society, and accordingly have been ever careful to encourage and protect the ministers of it, paying them the highest public Honors, that their Doctrines might thereby meet with the greater respect among the common people.” Obama claims to be Christian but he currently doesn’t belong to any church, so what are we supposed to believe? His father was a Muslim and his mother had no religious affiliation, so isn’t it safe to say that he may be Muslim or atheist himself? It appears that Obama does not practice any religion and stands for nothing other than himself. Are we going to protect what our Founding Fathers established as One Nation Under God or are we going to let our nation befall to godlessness?
As Sarah Palin asked for us to pray for her son and our military in Iraq she poignantly repeated Lincoln’s words, “…for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.” In Vietnam, John McCain and his fellow prisoners requested an English-language Bible to conduct a proper Christmas observance. The guards allowed one prisoner access to a Bible for 30 minutes – that prisoner was McCain. Using tiny pieces of a broken lead pencil, McCain copied the Nativity story down on scrap paper. On the evening of December 25, 1971, McCain and his fellow prisoners recounted the birth of Christ and recited Christmas Carols and the Lord’s Prayer. At the end, all sang with much emotion, “”>Silent Night.” It’s quite clear which candidates live a life of faith and humbly aspire to protect this One Nation Under God.
If we look at our country’s current state of affairs, it appears that we are headed in the direction of becoming a divided nation under idolatry. Our idols consist of a vast array of things: from money, to square footage in our homes, to cars, credit cards, status, power, etc. Imagine a country with the reverse statistics of those mentioned above – a country filled with citizens out for their own personal gain in an unscrupulous and competitive society where we “redistribute” the income of the hard working and responsible few. Our Declaration of Independence states: “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, Our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” Does our current way of life reflect the words written in our declaration? Human rights are unalienable because they are “endowed by our Creator” and are based on a Divine origin. To quote George Washington in his circular letter of farewell to the Army, June 8, 1783:
“I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in His Holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.”
