With the rise of Roy Moore and his ilk, Gonnella dispels notion ‘Bible‘toting only to govern
Elliot Gonnela
Antelope Staff
As much as I hate to give credit to the man who made high school English class painful to sit through, Ralph Waldo Emerson had a pretty good quote that holds true today. “Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.”
It is a simple statement that reminds the reader that just because people, sometimes many people, tell you that you are wrong is not because you are who you are but because they hold a very different opinion than your own. Not everyone is going to hold your opinion, and you need to accept that people are not going to like your opinions sometimes.
Now could someone tell Roy Moore that?
Roy Moore is someone who I refer to as a Bible-thumping fanatic without any Christian qualities. He is currently running for Jeff Sessions’s empty Senate seat in Alabama, and considering the geography, will most likely win that seat. He has not been idle, tearing down the walls between church and state so that he can promote his own religion that is Christian in name only.
Some examples of his lunatic mind: “Buddha didn’t create us, Mohammed didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures who created us… They didn’t bring the Koran over on the pilgrim ship… let’s get real, let’s go back and learn our history. Let’s stop playing games.”
And a more recent gem, “We’ve got to go back and recognize that what they did in Obergefell (Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage) was not only to take and create a right that does not exist under the Constitution, but then to mandate that that right compels Christians to give up their religious freedom and liberty.”
As you can see, Moore believes in the absolute authority of his version of Christianity and that America is a Christian nation and only Christians should have authority. Not the Constitution, not the secular courts and legislatures, but some book from his shelf should have final say in the government.
I have something to say to that thinking, but it is not fit to print.
As mentioned many times before, America has not, is not and will never be a Christian nation. There is not a single mention of a specific religion in the Constitution, no reference to Jesus, the 10 Commandments or any other religious figure to be found in there. There are no ‘God-given rights’ in the Constitution; a group of wealthy white slave owners gave those rights to the citizens. The Founding Fathers would be considered heathens by Moore and his cadre of fools were they alive today. Many of them venomously opposed any state religion and made very little mention of their own beliefs in a divine being. That is why our system of government has not fallen to the terrors of a theocracy.
If you follow any religion, or eschew them all, you have the right to belief and profess that belief. The Gideons can hand out their Bibles and try to convert someone, and those wolves who stand on the street corner shouting obscenities waiting for someone to hit them for that sweet dollar can do that too. They have the freedom to believe what they want.
However, the right to espouse your religion ends where my civil liberty begins. As mentioned many times, I was raised a Lutheran of the ELCA variety and now consider myself as a nondenominational Christian. What I believe should not be used to judge others who follow a different sect or belief system entirely. My duties as a citizen come before any belief otherwise. I uphold and practice the law of the country, not archaic religious laws.
Think for a moment about all the rules and laws found in the Bible. I imagine I would have been put to death a long time ago because I break so many rules on a weekly basis. I take God’s name in vain like clockwork, eat unclean animals regularly, wear precious metals, work on Sunday, wear clothing of mixed fabrics, get haircuts and shave my beard. Many of those would demand a death sentence according to the Bible. Moore and I would be in the same line to get our heads lopped off if his storybook was the law of the land.
Unfortunately, that fact is lost to Moore and his delusional band. They do not use religion as a way to do good and help others, but rather to raise themselves up as if it is something that makes them better than everyone else. Using the position as one of the 100 elite senators, unless he really messes up, Roy Moore hopes to spread this twisted belief to others and implement it. There is nothing anyone can do about this directly, unless the one or two students from Alabama are reading this, I implore you not to vote for this person.
I encourage everyone to keep to their faith, but just because others believe something else does not mean they are out to get you. You can still pray, go to services, donate to religious organizations and even talk to others about your religion. You are not being persecuted because others don’t agree with you and you can’t enact laws to make your religion the only one.
I just want to remind Roy Moore about something if he wins. You swear upon a religious text to uphold the Constitution of the United States. You do not swear on the Constitution to promote your religion.
