Yes! I question why they would have the clauses in there at all if they were intended to only extend to the similar faiths of the founding fathers and they did not intend to offer it to all the faiths that were streaming to their shores? Were they planning on prohibiting the free exercise of Christianity? Worried that Christianity would be forbidden by themselves? By it's inclusion I think it must have extended to all the religions that were already in existence at that time.

I didn't get the chance to read the warning signs on Liberty Island where it said "Christians only need come".

It's already been tried to take the world by force for Christianity ... didn't work ... it's time to take it for Christ by love.

“    Congress shall make no law respecting the 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.    ”

I'm afraid I would need to do some very serious mental gymnastics in order to come to the conclusion that the constitution was written to only protect the Christian religion.

The authors knew what they were saying. They were no dummies. The history of persecution FOR their religion that they experienced in Europe was still in the forefront of their conscience. And they understand that creating a government, based on Godly, Biblical principles meant that they needed to protect all of the citizens, and not just the ones that agreed with them. The constitution is carefully crafted to protect the rights of the minority, not just the majority. The principle author (Thomas Jefferson) of the constitution was not a Christian anyway. He didn't write a document that would protect everyone else, except for himself.

The constitution is about protecting PEOPLE, not Christians.

The First Amendment is a collection of clauses designed to protect the basic principles of freedom for all citizens. Here they are:

Protect the freedom of religion
Protect the freedom of speech
Protect the freedom of the press
Protect the freedom of to assemble
Protect the freedom to petition for grievances

Each of those is designed to protect PEOPLE, not Christians.
We don't say that only Christian Americans have freedom of speech.
We don't say that only Christian Americans can have a press.
We don't say that only Christian Americans have the right to assemble.
We don't say that only Christian Americans have the right to petition the government to redress wrongdoing.

We don't say that, because it is no so. We can't then, pull one clause out and say it is only meant to protect Christianity. We can't do that, because it would be patently false. The entire First Amendment was written to protect everyone.



Can you give me an example of the government making a law that prohibits you from expressing your faith? At least, at the very minimum, a law that is not equally applied to all religions? And, if you are feeling persecuted, you believe that the answer to your persecution is to persecute someone else? That is the Christian response? You don't have enough rights, so the answer to take away someone else's rights?

What I think I keep hearing you say KP, is that because you are frustrated that government has taken away some freedom of Christians, that the answer it to take away freedom from everyone else. And, I'm afraid, that if that is the case, that you have it backwords. We don't change the obtrusive nature of government by making it more obtrusive, more invasive, bigger and more coercive. We don't shrink the role of government by giving it more power to control more people. That is bigger government, not smaller. Let's shrink government by stripping it of its power to steal freedom from Americans -- ALL Americans, not just Christians.


You missed that did you? I'm glad they took that down before you Canadians saw it.

I don't want to tear down this building.

No I don't, however like the frog in the kettle, the water is OK and it ends boiling the frog alive. The trouble is that Islam like the Communists is focused on the long haul, however long it takes they aim to enforce Shraih law. Whereas Christians are simply focused on Jesus caming back at any moment, so we don't have to worry about the future. I do not think that way, I am in this for the long haul, and will do all I can to make sure that my childrens children will have the same freedoms I have now.

Evil manifests in many ways and one way is allowing that which is wrong to build a strong tower. I am reminded of 1 sam 10:5. Where Saul is told about the hill of God, where there is a Philistine garrison there, I ask the question why was a Philistine garrison on the hill of God, it was there because God's people allowed it.

No one is saying that evil happened during the establishing of the nation by so called Christian leaders, however that does not mean that we reject the reason why this nation was established.

I agree with you about revival, I am not focused on our rights, I am solely focused on the Kingdom, and its rights.
KP

The horrible events of 9/11 remind me of the background of the biblical story of Jonah that chronicles God's calling a prophet to extend forgiveness to the Assyrians who butchered the Jewish people in massive proportions and with cruelty the world had never seen before ... much of what was then Assyria is now Muslim also.  It is little wonder that Jonah ran because he knew that God was going to extend forgiveness to them and Jonah didn't want any part of it. He was so depressed after the whole city came to know and worship God that he wanted to kill himself ... one would have thought the event was cause to celebrate ... Jonah wanted to die.

Amos 4:2 tells us of part of the cruelty where the Jews were "led away with hooks in their noses" ... it was a practice of the Assyrians to put a brass hook tied to a cord through all their captives' mouths and out through their noses so that they would not disappear as they led them hundreds of miles into slavery ... 10s of thousands likely died as they led God's chosen people away ... there are archaeological recovered carved pictograms/motifs that show the massive hooks in the mouths and noses of the Jewish slaves that were taken into captivity ... it is little wonder than Jonah ran when he heard God's call to forgive the Assyrians and tell them of God's love and forgiveness.  It was also a practice of the Assyrians to do "hand counts" of their captives ... they would literally chop off one of the hands of all their captives and pile up the hands so that they would know how many they had ( a census of ugly horrible proportions!).

9/11 was horrible, but God extends forgiveness to all mankind.  Certainly He wants us to reach the Muslim people also? Especially the numerous ones that have not done any harm to anybody.  Lets hope we don't have to spend three days in the belly of a great fish to give the same message of God's love and forgiveness for Muslim people today.

NM.

Extending forgiveness has nothing to do with forgetting.

If you are married and your wife goes out and has an affair then divorces you, you forgive her, BUT when she comes back a couple of years later, and say's sorry I was wrong and wants to remarry you, do you say OK lets aet the date. No because any one who does that is a fool, rather if there is still some feelings you rather wait and give time to see if she has really changed. Or you say, I have forgiven you but I won't allow you to put me in this place again.

Jonah didn't know that God would forgive Ninevah, rather he as my son used to say 'Oh I knew that. Jonah was never told to tell Ninevah to repent, he was told to tell Ninevah that in "40 days Ninevah will be destroyed", end of story. The problem we have had is so many preachers add stuff to the scriptures that we accept what they say is what it says.

Yes Jonah did say, "I knew you would do that" after God told him he wouldn't destroy Ninevah because they repented.

However that does not then mean that we allow someone we have forgiven go and set us up, we are to fight the enemy on two fronts, one is forgiveness, the other is to fight, not to protect ourselves, but our neighbors.

Again, until one understands that Islam's aim is Jihad, which is not terrorism, but the enforcement of Shriah law over the whole earth, one will just idly sit by and let them have what they want. Of course so many don't even want to contemplate that, rather we want to say, oh they just want to live in peace. There is ONLY one ruler over the whole earth, his name is Jesus, and as King He has given his people the authority to go into all nations and disciple them, because all the nations belong to Him.

We cannot allow the enemy to gain a foot hold in the nation, because Islam is the enemy of Christ's rule. Allah is NOT the God of the Bible.

The first part of the fight is 'spiritual' and if they resist then and only then do we fight the man.

KP

Evil is around us every where ... Satan is roaming every where seeking to devour.

There is a huge grocery store chain (I won't mention the name so I don't start a witch hunt) ... it's principle share holders hold a controlling share in the Playboy Corporation ... millions of people shop at this grocery chain ... it is probably the biggest in North America ... any large corporation can be traced back to shady ventures ... especially Islam.

But not all Islamic peoples are write offs for the Gospel ... there are entire ministries of those that are called to reach Muslims for Christ ... it doesn't help when Christian people promote hate or lies ... There isn't going to be a mosque built on ground zero folks ... there can't be a mosque built there to be dedicated to the memory of 9/11!  Listen to the promoters! They openly and consistently condemn the hateful activities that the radicals did on 9/11!

Yes ... I also have no use for the Muslim faith ... Jesus is the ONLY WAY ... the ONLY TRUTH ... the ONLY LIFE. I don't have hatred for them though no matter what their crime ... I believe in ministry to those in our prisons and jails. The bible tells us to go to those places to proclaim the Good News.

But we can't reach the average Muslim by entering in battle with them off the start and accusing them of things that are untrue.

I think we should look for ways to build bridges for them to find the truth of Christ ... kinda hard when we build walls because of their race and the religion they were born into in most cases.