To what do we owe this post? Well, in Religious Freedom: A Two-Way Street, I reblogged a post by Constitutional Insurgent. Then Ben Berwick decided to get in on the act with Freedom of – and from – Religion. Here is how he responded to what I wrote in my reblog.
What would ‘freedom from secularism’ look like? Would it mean that religious institutions would be prevalent? There are already many churches, of various denominations, serving Christianity across the USA. There are several million children in attendance of private schools in the USA, of which, according to this site, nearly 50% are Christian-based (the data is a little old, so take that info with a pinch of salt). Is that already freedom from secularism? US citizens have the choice to visit various places of worship, and we’re not just talking about Christianity (though Christianity is by far the largest religion represented in the US), and the influence of Christianity is seen throughout America. ‘One Nation Under God’, ‘In God we Trust’ and the various other proclamations from government officials are further proof of this.
The efforts to impress Christianity upon the US people may not be in the form of overt Bible thumping, but make no mistake, they are certainly happening. Churches in the US have a great deal of wealth, and influence. Some parts of the US are heavily religious, with religious agendas creeping into state schools. The efforts are well-organised, and at times, quite subtle.
Freedom of – and from – Religion
Are there efforts to impress Christianity upon poor innocent Atheists? Of course, there is. Christians have a Biblical directive to spread the Gospel of Christ. Therefore, we organize and spend a fair amount of our own money and time telling our neighbors about Jesus. There is nothing unconstitutional about it. Christian preaching deprives no one of their rights, and even government officials have the right to make proclamations about their belief in God. After all, what kind of country wants to deprive its leaders of the right of freedom of speech? How would one do something so dumb without doing more harm than good?
Yet Berwick goes on about the huge numbers of private schools, and he tells us that nearly 50 percent are Christian-based! What Berwick fails to mention is that the vast majority still send their children to “free” public schools. The alternative is that most parents both pay taxes to support the “free” public schools and pay to send their children to private schools. I say most parents because a few states have finally reversed the trend. Instead of wasting more and more money on government-run education, some elected officials are trying to give parents a real choice as to where they choose to educate their children.
We call allowing parents to choose where they send their children to school. “school choice.” Why would school choice be a terrifying concept to the supposedly prochoice, to people who believe in the “right” to abort a child? Are the supposedly prochoice actually in favor of choice or only in favor what they think the correct choice?
What is the most notable feature of those “free” public schools, other than the fact that they are government monopolies that do not do of good job of educating children? Government-run schools promote Secularism. That includes educating children in Wokeism, Humanism, Critical Race Theory, Multiculturalism, Environmentalism, Transgenderism, Socialism and various other Secular religious beliefs. Is it the correct choice to insist that all children learn all these various isms, religious beliefs?
Religious beliefs? Why should we call all those various Secular isms religious beliefs? Instruction in these isms and theories is designed to instill specific values in our children. Our values are based upon our religious beliefs. Just as belief in Biblical truth leads to a belief in a certain set of values so does Secularism, just vastly differing values.
Whereas Christians believe in loving our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind and loving our neighbor as we love our self; non-Christians tend to idolize the stuff they want, sexual pleasure, scientific knowledge that supports what they want to believe, an almighty state that gives them what they want, and their pride in their self.
Does that sound harsh? Are Christians that great? Are non-Christians that awful? The world is not black and white. It is not even shades of grey. God gave us a beautiful and colorful earth, and people vary. Not everyone who calls himself a Christian has committed their self to living as Jesus would have us live. Not every non-Christian refuses to love God and neighbor.
Nevertheless, we can be utterly brutal. Even our own land we can shut everyone down, in some states for a couple of years, in response to a hysterical fear, COVID-19. We deprived our own children, even though it quickly became apparent that the virus had little effect upon children, of the opportunity to go to school and socialize with each other. We even made toddlers wear masks, and those masks did those children no good. In our hysteria and in our prideful refusal to admit an obvious error, we did more harm than good. That is, our national response to COVID-19 demonstrated very little Christian humility or neighborly love.
Unfortunately, abuse of the weak is nothing new, and we do far worse than make children wear masks. For decades Secularists have forced people who think the abortion of an unborn child is murder — essentially human sacrifice — to pay for the damned procedure. Even if we can convince our self that the abortion of an unborn child is not murder, what is the point of making those who think abortion is murder help pay for it? Where is the need?
There is no need, of course, but the prideful take joy in bending others to their will.
We live in a nation that has been largely secularized. Most people don’t even know what the Bible says, but Berwick still complains about those mean and nasty Christians picking on him. Why? That is what the public school system and the mass media have taught us to do.
Berwick’s enemy is made of straw. Fortunately, when we actually take the time to examine what we have been taught, we begin to realize that. See => https://citizentom.com/2007/07/01/reviling-christian-fundamentalism/.
An aside Constitutional Insurgent. What is Wokeism?
- The subject of a debate at this “dictionary.” https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wokeism
- Defined in what is supposedly a more traditional dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/woke
- The subject for a discussion in psychology. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/feeling-our-way/202108/the-psychology-wokeism
- The object of a complaint by a Liberal publication condemning what the “right” supposedly did to a term originated by Liberal Democrats. https://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2020/jan/21/how-the-word-woke-was-weaponised-by-the-right. Note this article credits Black Lives Matter with helping to popularize the term “woke.” Anyone who does any serious investigation of Black Live Matters will soon discover that the people who started Black Lives Matters are Marxists.
- The topic of another newspaper effort to salvage the term “woke.” https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10760207/woke-meaning-definition/
So, yes. Wokeism is a real thing, but the George Floyd riots in 2020 probably did not do much to make the “woke” and their “wokeism” popular. See https://spectator.org/george-floyd-wokeism-religion/.
Citizen Tom 
Always good posts from you
Thank! I very much appreciate the compliment, especially considering the source.
Tom,
The reason we need freedom from secularism is because secularism has failed to provide freedom in our Nation.
All anyone has to do is read the news of crimes occurring all over four Nation every day, after day, after day.
For example, on the issue of crime. All anyone has to do to prove secularism has failed is for the government to conduct o study of all convicted criminals to compare iffy attended a government run secular school or a private religious school. Only the government has access to criminal records.
We all should consider that one definition of freedom is: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another:
Then consider how many people living in urban high crime areas, mainly in Democrat managed cities, who cannot walk down a street, or to a bus or subway, or even sit down on a front porch for fear of harm from criminals who have power to rob, kill, rape, or beat them to submission,
We vote for politicians to manage our Nation, teach our children, and then allow criminals to be in power, and claimed to be a Nation of Freedom?
The root cause or reason, is all related to wisdom and love never being taught to children to understand both the meanings of religious values in their lives. Instead of failed secular values.
While there is no guarantee a child taught in depth religious values will be a saint, it will at the very least allow him freedom of choice to make a wise or foolish choice in his or her lives.
Right now, children never introduced to in-depth teachings of wisdom and love are not free to attend the same schools because either the parents were never introduced, or their parents cannot afford to send their children to private schools which incidentally, cost less on average to run than public government run schools.
In my opinion, school choice and school vouchers will serve to provide a much better record of success or failure of families and Nation. Unfortunately, it will take a lot of time to reopen closed private religious schools for lack funds and of affordability by parents.
The sooner the study is made, the sooner the results of the failed path will be discovered to be the root cause why we need………. which is to provide choice or freedom …..from failed secularism
As for other issues now in the news, all we have to do is study and compare the root causes of issues to history of other failed experiments in choices of governing
Regards and goodwill blogging.
It’s so ironic Tom, the whole reason why people allegedly wanted secularism is for freedom’s sake. So then ask the question, “should people be allowed to have freedom from secularism?” The answer is always “oh, heck no! Mandate secularism, forbid prayer, force compliance,” etc etc. So mandatory, forced secularism in all things now rules the day. Needless to say “mandated force” is kind of the precise opposite of freedom. So now what you have is the worst aspects of “religion” and “ideology” attempting to ensure none of us are allowed to be free. The have created the very thing they were trying to prevent.
Trying to prevent? Not exactly. They want their own freedom, but they have not demonstrated a willingness to fight for the freedom of others.
This is not the 1960’s. Previous generations of Democrats may have been willing to fight for the freedom of others, but not this one. The ACLU, for example, is not what it once was.