However, this country was NOT founded on God's Laws...we swear on the Bible to uphold the Constitution, not the other way around...we cannot be a free nation when we are ruled over by a clergy that can just make **** up and claim "God said."
If you want to live in a moral and decent nation...that's fine...no one is trying to change that...but what you really seem to want is a nation where YOUR denomination lords over those who do not share your viewpoints, and you seem to want to have those same dissidents eradicated. If that's the nation you want to live in, then I suggest Syria or Iran, as the model of theocratic government you so desire is the very one they practice in those countries...it's called Sharia Law. The only difference is the name of the God. and the way they worship. The same exact model was practiced in the Dark Ages too in Europe...and resulted in numerous crusades of bloodshed, the feudal system, and even international conflict that lasted 2000+ years because someone dared to claim God was on THEIR side and not the side of which ever enemy they were fighting.
This also resulted in the torture, hanging, drawing and quartering, and burning of countless innocents simply because the Church decided that an enlightened people were against God, and thus the beginning of inquisition.
I'm sorry, but if that's your idea of a moral and decent nation...count me out....I don't NEED God to be moral...my ethics come from my understanding of what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's not so good...if you need God to tell you these things, then you are the one with the problem, not the rest of society...God gave you brains to think with...not to just keep relying on Him to hold your hand and lead you around like you're on a leash...there are some things He, in his Infinite wisdom, wants us to figure out for ourselves...otherwise what's the point of FREE WILL???
I think that if there's a God, he wants us to do the best we can but at the same time, he wants us to **** up royally from time to time so that we can learn from our mistakes and shortcomings...he does NOT, however, want certain groups of His people (hint hint) becoming moral arbiters and trying to become absolute authorities on what they THINK He wants...He doesn't like people trying to speak for Him...I know I wouldn't if I had the power of a God and created humans....in other words, this falls under the "judge not lest ye be judged" heading...
Our planet has had its fill of wannabe Gods and tyrants (like Hitler) throughout history...I think it's time we make these kinds of people relics from a gratefully forgotten era.
I don't call people odd for standing up for what they feel is right...I do however, call people trying to shove their religion down my throat "apeshit crazy" and doesn't take my feelings or my rights as an American into consideration.
50 years ago we DID have school prayer, which VIOLATED the establishment clause of the first Amendment to the Constitution...as for the drugs...yeah...drugs are the only thing I can agree with you on as far as public and personal safety...teenage pregnancies were going on well before they took prayer out of schools...not to mention juvenile crime. Kids were taught right from wrong, but some of them grew up and started to think for themselves and that's why we are as enlightened today as we have ever been.
Wanna know what else we had 50 years ago??? Racial and gender discrimination, people of colour were oppressed and treated like 3rd class citizens along with Jews and French Canadians....
50 years ago the Ku Klux Klan was at its most powerful.
50 years ago or better we had people like Joe McCarthy putting innocent people to death over his own prejudices, under the guise of fighting communism...and were there fair hearings? Hell No. Contrary to how our justice system was supposed to work, we treated the accused as guilty and skewed the evidence and testimonies of all involved...remember the Rosenbergs? They weren't put to death because they were communists, as they were NOT communists...they were executed for being Jews...as many of McCarthy's targets happened to be Jews.
Gay pride? What's wrong with that? You can't be something you're not, so one might as well embrace what they are and be proud of it.
Why should they be treated any differently from straights like you and I? They're people too...many of them religious as well, If you are a Christian, you'd do well to remember that Jesus taught his followers to treat others as we treat ourselves. "Love thine neighbour as thou loveth thyself." "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." I don't see how we get "Different???? KILL THEM!!!" from those messages but you probably read a different Bible than the one I have sitting on my night stand.
As far as abortion rights...if you ever got raped and it resulted in an unwanted and unintended pregnancy and you were forced to carry the fetus to term and weren't able to afford to take care of it, you'd probably understand. God forbid you'd ever have to walk a mile in their shoes, because then you might really know what it's like to have make that choice. Abortion is in some ways, evil, because that fetus does eventually become a human baby if not aborted, and it makes me sad that those choices have to be made sometimes...but it is a NECESSARY evil when it is a last resort to save another life in any way it does so. And don't tell me you're "pro-life." If you really gave a rat's *** about right to life...you wouldn't support the death penalty, and you sure as hell wouldn't stop caring about those children after they're born..."Pro-lifer rhetoric: If you unborn you're okay, when you're born, you're ******." - George Carlin. So please spare me the moral outrage on abortion until you stop trying to eliminate family planning and family assistance programs for needy families that have these kids. Or start supporting the use of contraceptives...abstinence-only education DOES NOT WORK...sexual hormones and puberty naturally make teenagers and young adults sexually active...these are basic human instincts that we follow because it's a biological imperative. To deny this upsets the order of things...for proof, look at all the child molesters in the clergy and all the other monsters on the street. Sexual repression has these effects on people.. Studies have shown this.
As for wanting all that CRAP taught to our children...we need that CRAP taught to children because we have a MORAL obligation and duty to prepare our children to be integrated into society and these are facts of life that they NEED to be made aware of.
And openness HAS made our nation better on a small scale...it's been proven time and again that people who are open-minded and think for themselves live happier lives than closed-minded and bigoted individuals like yourself. Come on...you don't sound very happy, do you? Well, that's because your brain is CRYING to be made use of and BEGGING to be expanded...you are wasting all that grey matter by keeping to false Dark Age superstitions. Like I said...if God is as intelligent as I think he is...then I'd think He'd want you to use what He GAVE you. Somehow though, you got this idea that God only put that brain there for posterity and is of no real use other than to command your body to do things, and that learning anything different from your perspective is BAD.
So yeah, I want my kid to learn about different cultures, different ideas and learn to accept someone who lives his live differently. the ONLY way this nation will pull itself completely out of the toilet is if we STOP being consumed by petty differences like these instead of CONTINUING to be so set in our ways that we start seeing progress as ruination and vice versa.
And I'm afraid it's the right-wing agenda to destroy the country as we know it and rebuild it as a theocracy from which to destroy the freedom of all who don't subscribe to their absolutist totalitarian bullshit. I too could care less what you preach to your kids behind your own locked barred door, but I also don't have to sit back and watch the 700 Club take over my damn country and start passing laws that tell me that I can either accept their version of Christ and live or be jailed, tortured, hanged or burned at the stake and stand there screaming that I'm going to hell as I take my last breath. This is not my idea of a rational, liberated society that champions freedom.
So I'm part of the LEFT and all WE want is a free and RATIONAL nation to live in, where EVERYBODY should be able to find happiness, not just a select group of people...and that is plain and simple...
Tmes indeed HAVE changed, but our CONSTITUTION has not, and I'll say it again, our CONSTITUTION has NOT, nor has it ever, or WILL it ever contain GOD'S Law!
Our nation was NOT FOUNDED ON THE TEN COMMANDMENTS or that's what the ENTIRETY of the Constitution WOULD be, Bill of Rights EXCLUDED, for those rights would not exist to begin with.