You would have heard the news by now: under the cover of darkness workers removed a statue of the Ten Commandments from an office in Oklahoma. The story itself has been widely reported, and this is how one news item covers it:
Workers began removing a Ten Commandments monument from the grounds of the Oklahoma Capitol late Monday in accordance with a court order. The Daily Oklahoman reported that the 6-foot high monument would be reinstalled outside the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, a conservative think tank.
A contractor hired by the state began removing the monument shortly after 10:30 p.m. local time. The works comes after the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision in June that the display violates a state constitutional prohibition on the use of public property to support “any sect, church, denomination or system of religion.”
The state is paying the contractor about $4,700 to remove the monument and take it to the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs’ offices a few blocks away, Office of Management and Enterprise Services spokesman John Estus told the Associated Press.
The Daily Oklahoman reported that the private contractor was hired to move the 4,800-pound monument out of concern that state workers could not safely do the job without damaging or destroying it.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol had increased security around the monument earlier Monday, and barriers were erected to keep visitors from getting close to it. Estus said the decision to remove the monument under the cover of darkness was made to avoid disturbing workers at the Capitol and to keep protesters from demonstrating while heavy equipment was being used to detach the two-ton monument from its base.
All this is so very bizarre when we consider the religious roots of America’s founding. Overwhelmingly the Founding Fathers were people of faith, even if some were just deists, and the consensus was that the nation could not survive without faith and biblical morality – as expressed by the Ten Commandments.
I discuss the Christian heritage of America in various articles, so will not need to fully repeat myself here. See here for more on this: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2014/04/12/america-christianity-and-secularism/
And here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/12/22/nations-virtue-religion-and-freedom/
In that second article I wrote:
Very few people would realise it, but there is a very real and vital connection between freedom, religion and morality; between liberty, faith and virtue. And perhaps nowhere was this concept so explicitly and strenuously promoted and championed than in America during the time of its founding.
The American Founding Fathers wrote extensively on the vital importance of both personal faith and social morality if their experiment in freedom was to succeed. They knew that a political system alone, no matter how well conceived, would not long last unless the citizenry was a virtuous people.
And they knew that freedom, no matter how important, would simply give way to license, and a new tyranny, unless the population were solidly religious and moral. Indeed, the founding of America was really one of the most unique and amazing events in modern history.
Let me quote just one of these founders who made this so very clear: John Adams said this on October 11, 1798: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Despite all this, the secularists believe that every trace of Christianity must now be removed from public and political life. While the First Amendment to the US Constitution offers us freedom of religion, the Christophobes want it to mean freedom from religion. I discuss elsewhere the real meaning of the separation of church and state doctrine: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2006/10/20/separation-of-church-and-state/
The atheists and secularists have declared war on God, and want Christianity to be completely removed from American life – at least in every public aspect. But they are nice enough to allow us a bit of religion if done in private in our own homes – and even there it is now being targeted.
Of course this one episode in Oklahoma does not make for a war on religion – not by itself. As an isolated incident it might not seem like much of a big deal. But when you add it to the hundreds and thousands of other cases in the US where the God-haters have been running amok, then a serious cumulative case certainly emerges.
Pulling prayer and the Ten Commandments out of the schools for example is not just an outward act. It is also designed to totally secularise life in not just our schools, but in public altogether. While the secular state can never fully suppress internal faith, it sure can make it hard to be lived out in any meaningful manner.
Indeed, why did my mind immediately spring to thoughts of Communist atheists destroying churches in Russia and China, or the militant IS destroying all things Christian in their demonic rampages? Why is the public expression of faith just so repulsive to these folks?
I am not aware of Christians seeking to ban the religion of secular humanism from the public square. Indeed, the atheists have free rein in the West to do their thing, with no fear of reprisals. But any trace of the Christian faith must be removed it seems.
Make no mistake here: a war has been declared on faith and freedom, and leading the charge in the West are the secularists and atheists who seem to hate God with a passion – the God they claim does not exist. In their zeal – really a religious zeal – to eradicate all things Christian, at least from the public square (for now), they seem to be little different from the Communists of old or IS today.
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The authorities here could not make their moral compass clearer if they had openly broadcast, “We stand for everything that is evil.”
Doing this under cover of darkness is enough of an admission in itself, notwithstanding all the excuses. But let us fully consider the list of what it is they are rejecting:
1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honour your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
10. You shall not covet.
The question is, would you want to be ruled by people who reject all of the above?
Once again, the ‘slippery slope’ and ‘frog boiled alive’ analogies are irresistible, and are being demonstrated in a way that is downright scary. As you say, Bill, this is not an isolated case. What we are seeing is the cumulative effect of a multitude of similar actions rather than random events.
Moreover, this is clearly more than just one more attack by atheists and secularists. In my opinion it is fueled by a demonic source with a clearly defined agenda: to eradicate anything that is associated with Christianity. But then, that is obviously the same force that has ignited militant atheism and other anti-God agendas in recent years. As the song by Petra declared back in 1987, “This Means War”! The good news is: “Greater is He….”
Sadly, if God had made reference to this in the bible I can just imagine the final scripture alluding to the nation of the U.S.A to run something like this…
And there rose up a leader who professed a belief in the One True God but who openly defiled and desecrated the Word of God and the temples of the forefathers. The people turned to the golden idol of Mammon, changed wives and husbands without conscience, and engaged in impure living without shame, and sacrificed their unborn offspring on the altar named “Convenience” and shouted it from the rooftops saying “Who is God that he should tell me what to do with my body?”. And laws were written to allow every unnatural behaviour to flourish and to punish the righteous who would not do these things and who hated these things. The monuments of the Law were removed in the darkness of night and pagan idols and gods were worshipped in their place. And the Almighty God sent prophets and watchmen to warn the people saying “Turn back to Almighty God who is most just and merciful. Repent from your evil ways and seek forgiveness of the Lord God Most High that He will plant your feet and save you from everlasting wrath”. And the people rejected the prophets and the watchmen’s words and God looked upon this nation and turned from it in wrath, and said “Woe unto this nation, is it not like in the days of Sodom and Gommorah or the days of Ur? I will give you over to your enemies and they will surround you and infiltrate you and lay waste to your places of worship and enslave you”.
On some fronts evil is being pushed backed but it makes me wonder if it will it be like the days of Jonah? Will the U.S.A come to a point where they will listen to the Word of God? What calamity will get the attention of the US (or Australia for that matter)?
Recently reading Deuteronomy chapters 9 and 10, I was stunned by just how seriously Moses took getting and living by “every word [i.e. commandment] that proceeds from the the mouth of God”: The process of getting the final “hardcopy” edition of the Ten Commandments was interrupted by Israel breaking the first commandments first.
The getting of the Ten Commandments involved Moses literally living out that principle that man shall not live by bread alone: Moses went through two mountaintop experiences with the LORD, both of forty days and forty nights long, days and nights when business with God was so urgent that Moses “neither ate bread nor drank water”!
Secular humanism constitutes a quasi deification of mankind… a violation of the first two of the Ten Commandments. Feuerbach and Freud’s claims that the notion of a god or gods are projections of the human pysche is itself a philosophical attempt to deride faith in the living God as nothing more than another kind of idolatry, where the god or gods are projections of subconscious wishes, or where the flesh has somehow become the Logos!
The sad and infuriating thing is that this sort of ‘get religion out of the public’ movement has been brewing for some time (lots of bad seed being sown and now ripening) and in some cases it was Christians who ‘helped’ bring this sort of thing about.
In America the ‘get religion out of the public’ seems to have started with a dispute between Protestants and Catholics that eventually led to the Bible being banned from being read in public schools…all the way back in 1886: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgerton_Bible_Case
And I notice in that Fox News report how a Baptist minister supports the monument removal. Talk about self-sabotage:
“Originally authorized by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2009, the privately funded monument has been a lightning rod for controversy since it was erected in 2012, prompting a lawsuit from Bruce Prescott, a Baptist minister from Norman who complained it violated the state constitution.
“Frankly, I’m glad we finally got the governor and attorney general to agree to let the monument be moved to private property, which is where I believe it’s most appropriate,” Prescott said Monday. “I’m not opposed to the Ten Commandments. The first sermon I ever preached was on the Ten Commandments. I’m just opposed to it being on public property.”” http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/10/06/workers-remove-ten-commandments-monument-from-oklahoma-capitol-grounds/
Last I heard, in Oklahoma they were waiting for permission to put up a statue of satan in the shape of a goat with two small children smiling and sitting on his lap, all in the cause of equality. I would not be surprised if that chilling monument does not appear before long. One can only serve one master – God or the evil one. I wish them every happiness.
All this is so very bizarre when we consider the religious roots of America’s founding. Overwhelmingly the Founding Fathers were people of faith, even if some were just deists, and the consensus was that the nation could not survive without faith and biblical morality – as expressed by the Ten Commandments.
The authorities here could not make their moral compass clearer if they had openly broadcast, “We stand for everything that is evil.”
Doing this under cover of darkness is enough of an admission in itself, notwithstanding all the excuses. But let us fully consider the list of what it is they are rejecting:
1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honour your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
10. You shall not covet.
The question is, would you want to be ruled by people who reject all of the above?
All sorts of opposition seem to be developing.
India is proposing to ban Hindus from converting to other religions:
https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2015/10/4042606/
Once again, the ‘slippery slope’ and ‘frog boiled alive’ analogies are irresistible, and are being demonstrated in a way that is downright scary. As you say, Bill, this is not an isolated case. What we are seeing is the cumulative effect of a multitude of similar actions rather than random events.
Moreover, this is clearly more than just one more attack by atheists and secularists. In my opinion it is fueled by a demonic source with a clearly defined agenda: to eradicate anything that is associated with Christianity. But then, that is obviously the same force that has ignited militant atheism and other anti-God agendas in recent years. As the song by Petra declared back in 1987, “This Means War”! The good news is: “Greater is He….”
Sadly, if God had made reference to this in the bible I can just imagine the final scripture alluding to the nation of the U.S.A to run something like this…
And there rose up a leader who professed a belief in the One True God but who openly defiled and desecrated the Word of God and the temples of the forefathers. The people turned to the golden idol of Mammon, changed wives and husbands without conscience, and engaged in impure living without shame, and sacrificed their unborn offspring on the altar named “Convenience” and shouted it from the rooftops saying “Who is God that he should tell me what to do with my body?”. And laws were written to allow every unnatural behaviour to flourish and to punish the righteous who would not do these things and who hated these things. The monuments of the Law were removed in the darkness of night and pagan idols and gods were worshipped in their place. And the Almighty God sent prophets and watchmen to warn the people saying “Turn back to Almighty God who is most just and merciful. Repent from your evil ways and seek forgiveness of the Lord God Most High that He will plant your feet and save you from everlasting wrath”. And the people rejected the prophets and the watchmen’s words and God looked upon this nation and turned from it in wrath, and said “Woe unto this nation, is it not like in the days of Sodom and Gommorah or the days of Ur? I will give you over to your enemies and they will surround you and infiltrate you and lay waste to your places of worship and enslave you”.
On some fronts evil is being pushed backed but it makes me wonder if it will it be like the days of Jonah? Will the U.S.A come to a point where they will listen to the Word of God? What calamity will get the attention of the US (or Australia for that matter)?
Recently reading Deuteronomy chapters 9 and 10, I was stunned by just how seriously Moses took getting and living by “every word [i.e. commandment] that proceeds from the the mouth of God”: The process of getting the final “hardcopy” edition of the Ten Commandments was interrupted by Israel breaking the first commandments first.
The getting of the Ten Commandments involved Moses literally living out that principle that man shall not live by bread alone: Moses went through two mountaintop experiences with the LORD, both of forty days and forty nights long, days and nights when business with God was so urgent that Moses “neither ate bread nor drank water”!
Secular humanism constitutes a quasi deification of mankind… a violation of the first two of the Ten Commandments. Feuerbach and Freud’s claims that the notion of a god or gods are projections of the human pysche is itself a philosophical attempt to deride faith in the living God as nothing more than another kind of idolatry, where the god or gods are projections of subconscious wishes, or where the flesh has somehow become the Logos!
The sad and infuriating thing is that this sort of ‘get religion out of the public’ movement has been brewing for some time (lots of bad seed being sown and now ripening) and in some cases it was Christians who ‘helped’ bring this sort of thing about.
In America the ‘get religion out of the public’ seems to have started with a dispute between Protestants and Catholics that eventually led to the Bible being banned from being read in public schools…all the way back in 1886:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgerton_Bible_Case
And I notice in that Fox News report how a Baptist minister supports the monument removal. Talk about self-sabotage:
“Originally authorized by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2009, the privately funded monument has been a lightning rod for controversy since it was erected in 2012, prompting a lawsuit from Bruce Prescott, a Baptist minister from Norman who complained it violated the state constitution.
“Frankly, I’m glad we finally got the governor and attorney general to agree to let the monument be moved to private property, which is where I believe it’s most appropriate,” Prescott said Monday. “I’m not opposed to the Ten Commandments. The first sermon I ever preached was on the Ten Commandments. I’m just opposed to it being on public property.””
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/10/06/workers-remove-ten-commandments-monument-from-oklahoma-capitol-grounds/
Last I heard, in Oklahoma they were waiting for permission to put up a statue of satan in the shape of a goat with two small children smiling and sitting on his lap, all in the cause of equality. I would not be surprised if that chilling monument does not appear before long. One can only serve one master – God or the evil one. I wish them every happiness.