A Common Sense Approach to Religious Freedom

Written by Terry Mitchell


Down throughrepparttar centuries and all overrepparttar 126510 world,repparttar 126511 battle for religious freedom has been a bitter one. The United States has been no exception. Although most of those who founded this country came here seeking religious freedom, it has been a source of contention fromrepparttar 126512 beginning and remains so today. There are fanatics on both sides of this issue. On one side, we have those who think their religious freedom is being violated if they are not allowed to force their religion down everyone else's throat. Onerepparttar 126513 other side, we have those who believe it's their inalienable right to never be exposed to any element of religious life. Both extremes are wrong. Government should be neither hostile to any religion nor an enforcer of it. Instead, those who possess common sense should be capable of assenting to a happy medium. Contrary to popular belief,repparttar 126514 phrase, "separation of church and state", cannot be found inrepparttar 126515 U.S. Constitution. That phrase is misleading anyway as many people interpret it as "protection ofrepparttar 126516 state fromrepparttar 126517 church." Most of our Founding Fathers frequently, and often publicly, expressed their faith in a Creator, so it should be obvious to anyone that they never intended to banish expressions of religious faith fromrepparttar 126518 public square. Any separation of church and state that they had in mind was to serve only four major functions: (1) allow people to freely practicerepparttar 126519 religion of their choice (or no religion at all) without interference fromrepparttar 126520 state, (2) forbid any religion or denomination from being set up asrepparttar 126521 "state church", (3) preventrepparttar 126522 state from havingrepparttar 126523 church do its bidding, and (4) protectrepparttar 126524 church from being regulated and having its practices dictated to it byrepparttar 126525 state. From these principles, I think we can derive a common sense approach to religious freedom. Our common sense approach should allow for verbal religious expression and forrepparttar 126526 display of religious symbols and materials in public and government venues. Although all religions should have equal access and rights regarding those expressions and displays,repparttar 126527 majority religion would obviously have a major advantage here. But so be it. No one would be hurt or forced to practice any religion against his or her will. If anyone is offended, that's their problem. No one has a right to not be offended, although many people think they have this right. Being offended once in a while isrepparttar 126528 price one has to pay for living in a free and open society. If someone has a major problem with that, they are free to leave this country any time they wish. Our common sense approach should also allow for limited amounts of prayer and religious teaching in public schools. It should not berepparttar 126529 focus of any public school, but it should be permitted and based onrepparttar 126530 religion favored byrepparttar 126531 majority ofrepparttar 126532 parents in a given school district. The majority of parents could opt for no prayer or religious teaching at all in a given school district, if they so desired. All parents would haverepparttar 126533 option of not having their child (children) participate in or be present forrepparttar 126534 prayer and religious teaching. Althoughrepparttar 126535 teaching of evolution would still be mandatory, creationism could be taught as part of any religious curriculum.

Searching for Silence in a Noisy World

Written by Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur


Searching for Silence in a Noisy World by Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur

When wasrepparttar last time you were surrounded by silence? It seems that background noise is an ever-present reality of our world. The T.V. and radio are our constant companions. Our children play with electronic toys that beep and wail atrepparttar 126509 push of a button. Our streets are full of roaring engines, tooting horns, andrepparttar 126510 pounding of construction. At night, we may run a fan or have an air conditioner humming inrepparttar 126511 background. We do not even sleep in silence. The sounds of nature and indeedrepparttar 126512 sounds of our own mind are drowned out byrepparttar 126513 constant din.

What is it about silence that makes us so uncomfortable? While we have little control over many ofrepparttar 126514 noises of our world, what aboutrepparttar 126515 ones we can control? How often do we makerepparttar 126516 conscious choice to turn offrepparttar 126517 background noise, to pay attention to that which is within us? What is it that we are afraid we will find? It is in those all too rare moments of silence that we can truly come to know ourselves.

Only two people who have known each other a great deal can sit comfortably in silence. Among new acquaintances, we force ourselves to keeprepparttar 126518 conversation going. Silence feels forced and awkward. Inrepparttar 126519 intimacy of an old friendship or within a marriage, however,repparttar 126520 silence can be comforting. We do not feelrepparttar 126521 need to always come up with something to talk about. There is no pressure to perform. Nothing is forced. We are free to just be inrepparttar 126522 presence ofrepparttar 126523 other.

So should it be in our relationship with God. In our prayer, our conversation with God, do we always feelrepparttar 126524 need to be talking? Do we ever stop to listen? God, who loves us and knows us more intimately than any human ever could, exists within us and invites us to just be inrepparttar 126525 presence ofrepparttar 126526 divine. Obviously, conversation with God and being with God is different from our human relationships. In our interpersonal encounters, we can seerepparttar 126527 person with whom we are conversing, we can hear their voice onrepparttar 126528 telephone, or read an email from a friend. With God, we need to trust that He is always there with us, whether we sense Him or not. It is up to us to open ourselves torepparttar 126529 possibility of experiencing God. In silence, we can more fully allow ourselves to be open to that possibility.

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