[Mike12]

Eisenhower: Peace and Presbyterianism
June 11, 2019

“The business of the church is to put us generals out of business.”

This quotation from the May 1, 1969 issue of Presbyterian Life comes from none other than Dwight David Eisenhower, five-star general, supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, and 34th President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. While initially religiously unaffiliated, Eisenhower became a devout Presbyterian upon ascending to the presidency. Having experienced the horrors of war up close, his newfound religious faith coincided with his increasingly pacifist leanings, as evidenced by the content of his 1961 farewell address, wherein he coined the term “military-industrial complex” to describe the entwining of big business, the armed forces, and authoritarian politics in American society.

...(Eisenhower had no family Presbyterian history)...

Eisenhower, a moderately conservative Republican, realized the necessity of civil rights for African Americans and other people of color over the course of his presidency—particularly evidenced by his federalization of the Arkansas National Guard in 1957 to protect and accompany the Little Rock Nine, the first nine African American students to attend Little Rock Central High School, in defiance of white supremacists and Arkansas’s segregationist governor, Orval Faubus. At the same time as Eisenhower’s commitment to civil rights deepened, the PCUSA adopted an increasingly liberal opinion on civil rights, especially due to the sizable number of African American Presbyterians. The simultaneous evolution of Eisenhower and the Church’s stances on civil rights can be seen in his attendance of the May 15, 1955 service at the Gettysburg Presbyterian Church in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the site of the 1863 Civil War battle that marked the beginning of the Union’s triumph over the Confederacy. Sitting three rows behind the pew once used by Abraham Lincoln, the President and First Lady heard a sermon from the Reverend Clyde Raynor Brown on the Gospel of Matthew, specifically dwelling on the line “A good tree bringeth forth good fruit.” Rev, Brown said that for faith to be worthwhile, it needed to be active in practical worldly matters: “....if a Latin American or [African American] buys a house on your street….would you welcome him as a Christian should?”

As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that Eisenhower led, we should remember that President Eisenhower was horrified by the sheer depravity of combat, saying, “I hate war, only as a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity” (Presbyterian Life, May 1, 1969). Christian doctrines of peace and brotherhood—and a more theologically liberal PCUSA—influenced a man increasingly weary of world conflict during his second term in office and his retirement. Despite ordering interventions in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, President Eisenhower became increasingly critical of American military and corporate power; but his own thoughts on the state of America’s world presence would not make themselves known until his farewell address on January 17, 1961, days before John F. Kennedy was set to be inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States.

Taking aim at the American corporate and defense establishment, Eisenhower warned that

“This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

https://www.history.pcusa.org/blog/2019 ... yterianism

The National Presbyterian Church in DC has Eisenhower's inaugural prayer as an art piece as well. The cornerstone of the new church was laid by President Eisenhower on October 14, 1967, and the congregation first worshipped in its new home on September 7, 1969.[29]The Chapel of the Presidents, which seats 255, provides a more intimate setting for smaller events. Another series of Willet Studios windows located in the Chapel of Presidents depicts, in the major window, the history of the struggle to maintain religious freedom in America. There are also six windows portraying specific presidents (Washington, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Eisenhower, for whom the chapel is named and whose original prayer is printed on the outer wall). on a pamphlet for the church is Exodus 3:11-12 is. "1 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?12 And God said, “I will be with you.”"

"Guide my Feet" is an African American spiritual.

The United Presbyterian movement of 1958 was the combination of the Northern Presbyterians and the Southern Presbyterians or "reunion" which creates the United Presbyterians. Some presbyterian history videos highlight Horace Underwood and describe how no one in China understood a Southern Mission and a Northern Mission with differences dating from the Civil War and 150 years later. However, obviously it should be told that neither discipleship to the Northern Presbyterians or the Southern Presbyterians is served through discipleship to the United Presbyterians. Neither Northern Presbyterianism or Southern Presbyterianism is party to the 6 creeds now discussed in that Church. Horace Underwood as a Northern Presbyterian described that no other Church had an ecclesiastical and theological union as strong as existed between the Northern Presbyterian and Southern Presbyterian Churches working in Korea and their shared resources and effort and coordination is throughout evident. The combining of all separations of office is the final goal of the United Presbyterians. Persons being from up North or people being from down South is of course not the direct cause of Civil War, either.

The meaning on the Northern Presbyterians and the Southern Presbyterians jointly making the distinction of a Korean Presbyterian in council in 1907 in its administrative functions serves the obvious Purpose-driven Functions, of where practices were from or are native to, of where that is from and where it has arrived, and systematic and administrative reasons like that, are recurring permanent reasons on the administrative distinction of a Korean Presbyterianism.

[Puffer Fish]

Eisenhower, a moderately conservative Republican, realized the necessity of civil rights for African Americans and other people of color over the course of his presidency—particularly evidenced by his federalization of the Arkansas National Guard in 1957 to protect and accompany the Little Rock Nine, the first nine African American students to attend Little Rock Central High School, in defiance of white supremacists and Arkansas’s segregationist governor, Orval Faubus.

He was wrong.

I don't see what forced integration of schools has to do with civil rights. What "rights" did African Americans not have before?

There was indeed a real issue concerning civil rights, but the Progressive Left seems to have hijacked the meaning of the phrase and turned it into something it is not.

If you think overriding a state government and forcing racial integration was somehow a religious issue, then please explain that. I do not see any explanation for that in this article.

This entire article kind of sounds like a gushing social-progressive circle jerk. "Peace" in the title. What does any of this have to do with "peace"? How is any of it really related to "civil rights"? Sounds more like artificially created rights, not something that's obviously and indisputably inherent in civil rights.

on a pamphlet for the church is Exodus 3:11-12 is. "1 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?12 And God said, “I will be with you.”"

What does that possibly have to do with Eisenhower? Slavery was long over by the time Eisenhower came to office.
Did desegregating the schools somehow make African Americans more free? Was that comparable to slavery?

[Mike12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_people
The Scots (Scots: Scots Fowk; Scottish Gaelic: Albannaich) are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_people
The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture.[9] The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain,[note 1][17] is a sovereign country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland.[18][19] It comprises England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

https://www.crowncourtchurch.org.uk/
Welcome to the website of Crown Court Church of Scotland – a Presbyterian congregation worshipping, and serving, in the heart of central London.
Founded as the “Kirk of the Crown of Scotland” we are the longest-established Presbyterian church south of the border, dating from 1711; and remain a congregation of the national Church of Scotland.

The Church of Scotland (Scots: The Scots Kirk; Scottish Gaelic: Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. the Church of England (the established church in England).

Then the United Kingdom has established Churches that it recognizes or could tax people then and support and build itself as its establishment of higher learning where Scottish in England would be a focus on the Scottish heritage of say Robert Burns, Robert Bruce, is in stain glass at that Church, John Knox. I'm not saying that the Anglican organization has segregations. They're supporting a Presbyterianism segregation in the United Kingdom.
I think a great leader or two could even manage to be a preacher in 2 such establishments, Horace Underwood of Korea represented the Yankees, he spoke of his New York Parish, compared Philadelphia and States North only. Then was an ecumenical pastor of Korean Presbyterianism. Supposedly took a break and recruited the Southern located Presbyterianisms, to speak to your organizations perhaps when they don't speak to each other perhaps. Well don't you see that all is an imposition and a requirement on the little man, integrations. Integrations says now all of them will talk because I say so.

[Puffer Fish]

As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that Eisenhower led, we should remember that President Eisenhower was horrified by the sheer depravity of combat, saying, “I hate war, only as a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity” (Presbyterian Life, May 1, 1969). Christian doctrines of peace and brotherhood—and a more theologically liberal PCUSA—influenced a man increasingly weary of world conflict during his second term in office and his retirement. Despite ordering interventions in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, President Eisenhower became increasingly critical of American military and corporate power;

That article does not mention that he was elected during the Korean war and had to manage it.

[Mike12]

That article does not mention that he was elected during the Korean war and had to manage it.

What is in managing a conflict that already resulted? Already ended? 1953 is when Eisenhower is elected with truce and armistice talks essentially.

[Mike12]

Yonsei University (Korean: 연세대학교; Hanja: 延世大學校; [jʌn.se.dɛ.hak.k͈jo]) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea. As a member of the "SKY" universities, Yonsei University is deemed one of the three most prestigious institutions in the country. It is particularly respected in the studies of medicine and business administration., the Board of Directors of Yonsei University should include a member from four Korean Christian organizations: The Presbyterian Church of Korea (대한예수교장로회), the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (한국기독교장로회), the Korean Methodist Church (기독교대한감리회), and the Anglican Church of Korea (대한성공회).Each claiming to be the best private university in South Korea, Yonsei University and Korea University have had a long-standing athletic rivalry.

Protestant Blue is a catch-all phrase there with lutheran,anglican.

[Mike12]

Martin Luther King Jr. requests that Eisenhower instruct “the Attorney General to take immediate action ... to restore law and order.2 In a 17 March reply, Eisenhower’s deputy assistant Gerald Morgan highlighted recent statements by the president expressing support for the protests sweeping the South.3
the president
the white house

i wish to express my sincere support for the stand you have taken to restore law and order in little rock, arkansas. in the long run, justice finally must spring from a new moral climate. yet spiritual forces cannot emerge in a situation of mob violence.

you should know that the overwhelming majority of southerners, negro and white stand firmly behind your resolute action. the pen of history will record that even the small and confused minority that oppose integration with violence will live to see that your action has been of great benefit to our nation and to the christian traditions of fair play and brotherhood

martin luther king jr president
southern christian leadership conference.
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
530 South Union Street
Montgomery, Alabama

PERSONAL

Dear Mr. King:

Thank you for sending me your comments regarding the necessity of the decision I had to make in the difficult Arkansas situation. I appreciated your thoughtful expression of the basic and compelling factors involved.

I share your confidence that Americans everywhere remain devoted to our tradition of adherence to orderly processes of law.

Sincerely,
[signed] Dwight D. Eisenhower


the president
the white house

a reign of terror has broken out in montgomery, alabama. gestapo like methods are being used by police and city authorities to intimidate negroes who have been pursuing peaceful and non violate techniques to achieve their moral and constitutional rights. while students of alabama state college were convened in an orderly protest on their campus, city officials and police launched an incredible assault, and infiltrated the college campus with police armed with rifles shotguns and tear gas. yesterday they arrested more than 35 students, a faculty member, and a physician.4 today they had numerous trucks parked not far from the campus with the threat of arresting the entire student body. police are parading in front of churches they inhibit the holding of meetings and religious services. they have actually physically intruded themselves into these religious services. yesterday a bishop was conducting a church meeting when police invaded the meeting in a raid5 telephones are being tapped and telephone lines of negro leaders are left disconnected so that they cannot make nor receive calls. this calculated and provocative conduct of the police backed by the municipal and state authorities leads inescapably to the conclusion that they are trying to incite a riot in the hope that the responsibility for the injuries and deaths that might result will be fastened on the negroes. the negro community and students cannot permit themselves to be intimidated. they will not turn away from the pursuit of justice. they must and will pursue their righteous and non violate course. lest bloodshed stains the streets of america we ask that the american people through you be made aware of the brutal and flagrant violation of constitutional right. mr president we appeal to you to intervene by instructing the attorney general to take immediate action in your name to restore law and order in the capital of alabama. we are prepared to go with the attorney general into the federal court for injunctive release. we appeal to you to urge the city authorities to put down their guns, to garage their vehicles of aggression we are unarmed and dedicated to non violence though determined to resist evil. we pray that no harm may come either to our people or to those who oppress us. though it appears that the aggressors may unleash violence against us no matter how restrained our conduct. may god help us to maintain our endurance against provocations we are conscious of the many pressing duties of your office, but we feel this terror which grips a whole community in an american city violating elementary constitutional rights requires immediate federal emergency action. our concern for the honor of the nation which we love despite our suffering impels us to make this public outcry and appeal for justice and human decency.6

martin luther king, jr president
the southern christian leadership conference.

It was his response to a public statement of concern and
caution issued by eight white religious leaders of the South. Dr. King, who was born in 1929, did his undergraduate work at
Morehouse College; attended the integrated Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, one of six black pupils
among a hundred students, and the president of his class; and won a fellowship to Boston University for his Ph.D.
WHILE confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling our present activities "unwise
and untimely." Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all of the criticisms
that cross my desk, my secretaries would be engaged in little else in the course of the day, and I would have no time for
constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like
to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
I think I should give the reason for my being in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the argument of "outsiders
coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating
in every Southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliate organizations all across the
South, one being the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Whenever necessary and possible, we share staff,
educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago our local affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to be
on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour
came we lived up to our promises. So I am here, along with several members of my staff, because we were invited here. I am
here because I have basic organizational ties here.
Beyond this, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the eighth-century prophets left their little villages and carried
their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of
Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Greco-Roman world, I too am compelled
to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for
aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be
concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an
inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never
again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can
never be considered an outsider.
You deplore the demonstrations that are presently taking place in Birmingham. But I am sorry that your statement did not express
a similar concern for the conditions that brought the demonstrations into being. I am sure that each of you would want to go
beyond the superficial social analyst who looks merely at effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. I would not
hesitate to say that it is unfortunate that so-called demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham at this time, but I would say in
more emphatic terms that it is even more unfortunate that the white power structure of this city left the Negro community with no
other alternative.
IN ANY nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive,
negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. We have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham. There can be no
gainsaying of the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city
in the United States. Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of this country. Its unjust treatment of Negroes
in the courts is a notorious reality. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than
in any other city in this nation. These are the hard, brutal, and unbelievable facts. On the basis of them, Negro leaders sought to
negotiate with the city fathers. But the political leaders consistently refused to engage in good-faith negotiation.
Then came the opportunity last September to talk with some of the leaders of the economic community. In these negotiating
sessions certain promises were made by the merchants, such as the promise to remove the humiliating racial signs from the
stores. On the basis of these promises, Reverend Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human
Rights agreed to call a moratorium on any type of demonstration. As the weeks and months unfolded, we realized that we were
the victims of a broken promise. The signs remained. As in so many experiences of the past, we were confronted with blasted
hopes, and the dark shadow of a deep disappointment settled upon us. So we had no alternative except that of preparing for direct
action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and national
community. We were not unmindful of the difficulties involved. So we decided to go through a process of self-purification. We



Letter From Birmingham Jail 2
started having workshops on nonviolence and repeatedly asked ourselves the questions, "Are you able to accept blows without
retaliating?" and "Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?" We decided to set our direct-action program around the Easter
season, realizing that, with exception of Christmas, this was the largest shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong
economic withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct action, we felt that this was the best time to bring pressure on
the merchants for the needed changes. Then it occurred to us that the March election was ahead, and so we speedily decided to
postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that Mr. Conner was in the runoff, we decided again to postpone
action so that the demonstration could not be used to cloud the issues. At this time we agreed to begin our nonviolent witness the
day after the runoff.
This reveals that we did not move irresponsibly into direct action. We, too, wanted to see Mr. Conner defeated, so we went
through postponement after postponement to aid in this community need. After this we felt that direct action could be delayed no
longer.
You may well ask, "Why direct action, why sit-ins, marches, and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are exactly right
in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and
establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks
so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. I just referred to the creation of tension as a part of the work of the
nonviolent resister. This may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have
earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, but there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for
growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage
of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must see the need of having
nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men to rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism
to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. So, the purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed
that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. We therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our
beloved Southland been bogged down in the tragic attempt to live in monologue rather than dialogue.
One of the basic points in your statement is that our acts are untimely. Some have asked, "Why didn't you give the new
administration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to this inquiry is that the new administration must be prodded about
as much as the outgoing one before it acts. We will be sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Mr. Boutwell will bring the
millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is much more articulate and gentle than Mr. Conner, they are both
segregationists, dedicated to the task of maintaining the status quo. The hope I see in Mr. Boutwell is that he will be reasonable
enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from the devotees of
civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and
nonviolent pressure. History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges
voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has
reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals.
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the
oppressed. Frankly, I have never yet engaged in a direct-action movement that was "well timed" according to the timetable of
those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "wait." It rings in the
ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "wait" has almost always meant "never." It has been a tranquilizing
thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration. We must come
to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice too long delayed is justice denied." We have waited for more than
three hundred and forty years for our God-given and constitutional rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike
speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee
at a lunch counter. I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say "wait." But when you
have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen
hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast
majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when
you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she
cannot go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes
when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little
mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when
you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos, "Daddy, why do white people treat colored
people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable
corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs
reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "N*****" and your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you
are) and your last name becomes "John," and when your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are
harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never knowing what to
expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of
"nobodyness" -- then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs
over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding
despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.



Letter From Birmingham Jail 3
YOU express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so
diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, it is rather
strange and paradoxical to find us consciously breaking laws. One may well ask, "How can you advocate breaking some laws and
obeying others?" The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws. I
would agree with St. Augustine that "An unjust law is no law at all."
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made
code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To
put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that
uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because
segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a
false sense of inferiority. To use the words of Martin Buber, the great Jewish philosopher, segregation substitutes an "I - it"
relationship for the "I - thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. So segregation is not only
politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, but it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is
separation. Isn't segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, an expression of his awful estrangement, his
terrible sinfulness? So I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court because it is morally right, and I can urge
them to disobey segregation ordinances because they are morally wrong.
Let us turn to a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that
is not binding on itself. This is difference made legal. On the other hand, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to
follow, and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.
Let me give another explanation. An unjust law is a code inflicted upon a minority which that minority had no part in enacting or
creating because it did not have the unhampered right to vote. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up the
segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout the state of Alabama all types of conniving methods are used to
prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties without a single Negro registered to vote, despite
the fact that the Negroes constitute a majority of the population. Can any law set up in such a state be considered democratically
structured?
These are just a few examples of unjust and just laws. There are some instances when a law is just on its face and unjust in its
application. For instance, I was arrested Friday on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong with an
ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but when the ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens the
First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust.
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the
early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks before submitting to certain
unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil
disobedience.
We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in
Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. But I am sure that if I had lived in Germany
during that time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal. If I lived in a Communist
country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying
these anti-religious laws.
I MUST make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the last few years
I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great
stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate
who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace
which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods
of direct action"; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of
time; and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of
good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more
bewildering than outright rejection.
In your statement you asserted that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But
can this assertion be logically made? Isn't this like condemning the robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the
evil act of robbery? Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical
delvings precipitated the misguided popular mind to make him drink the hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because His
unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to His will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see,
as federal courts have consistently affirmed, that it is immoral to urge an individual to withdraw his efforts to gain his basic
constitutional rights because the quest precipitates violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.



Letter From Birmingham Jail 4
I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth of time. I received a letter this morning from a white brother in
Texas which said, "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but is it possible that you are
in too great of a religious hurry? It has taken Christianity almost 2000 years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ
take time to come to earth." All that is said here grows out of a tragic misconception of time. It is the strangely irrational notion
that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time is neutral. It can be used either
destructively or constructively. I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the
people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but
for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It
comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work time
itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.
YOU spoke of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my
nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I started thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in
the Negro community. One is a force of complacency made up of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, have been
so completely drained of self-respect and a sense of "somebodyness" that they have adjusted to segregation, and, on the other
hand, of a few Negroes in the middle class who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because at points
they profit by segregation, have unconsciously become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of
bitterness and hatred and comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups
that are springing up over the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. This movement is
nourished by the contemporary frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination. It is made up of people who have
lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incurable
devil. I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need not follow the do-nothingism of the complacent or the
hatred and despair of the black nationalist. There is a more excellent way, of love and nonviolent protest. I'm grateful to God that,
through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, I am
convinced that by now many streets of the South would be flowing with floods of blood. And I am further convinced that if our
white brothers dismiss as "rabble-rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who are working through the channels of
nonviolent direct action and refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes, out of frustration and despair, will seek
solace and security in black nationalist ideologies, a development that will lead inevitably to a frightening racial nightmare.
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come. This is what has happened to the
American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom; something without has reminded him that he
can gain it. Consciously and unconsciously, he has been swept in by what the Germans call the Zeitgeist, and with his black
brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America, and the Caribbean, he is moving with a sense of
cosmic urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. Recognizing this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community,
one should readily understand public demonstrations. The Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations. He has to
get them out. So let him march sometime; let him have his prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; understand why he must have sitins and freedom rides. If his repressed emotions do not come out in these nonviolent ways, they will come out in ominous
expressions of violence. This is not a threat; it is a fact of history. So I have not said to my people, "Get rid of your discontent."
But I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled through the creative outlet of nonviolent direct
action. Now this approach is being dismissed as extremist. I must admit that I was initially disappointed in being so categorized.
But as I continued to think about the matter, I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. Was not
Jesus an extremist in love? -- "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you." Was not
Amos an extremist for justice? -- "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Was not Paul an
extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ? -- "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist?
-- "Here I stand; I can do no other so help me God." Was not John Bunyan an extremist? -- "I will stay in jail to the end of my
days before I make a mockery of my conscience." Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist? -- "This nation cannot survive half
slave and half free." Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist? -- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal." So the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for
hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the
cause of justice?
I had hoped that the white moderate would see this. Maybe I was too optimistic. Maybe I expected too much. I guess I should
have realized that few members of a race that has oppressed another race can understand or appreciate the deep groans and
passionate yearnings of those that have been oppressed, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by
strong, persistent, and determined action. I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers have grasped the meaning of
this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too small in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some,
like Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, and James Dabbs, have written about our struggle in eloquent, prophetic, and
understanding terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They sat in with us at lunch counters and
rode in with us on the freedom rides. They have languished in filthy roach-infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of
angry policemen who see them as "dirty N***** lovers." They, unlike many of their moderate brothers, have recognized the
urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful "action" antidotes to combat the disease of segregation.



Letter From Birmingham Jail 5
LET me rush on to mention my other disappointment. I have been disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of
course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on
this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your Christian stand this past Sunday in welcoming Negroes to your Baptist
Church worship service on a nonsegregated basis. I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Springhill College
several years ago.
But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say that as
one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say it as a minister of the gospel who loves
the church, who was nurtured in its bosom, who has been sustained by its Spiritual blessings, and who will remain true to it as
long as the cord of life shall lengthen.
I had the strange feeling when I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery several years ago
that we would have the support of the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests, and rabbis of the South would be some
of our strongest allies. Instead, some few have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and
misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the
anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows.
In spite of my shattered dreams of the past, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this
community would see the justice of our cause and with deep moral concern serve as the channel through which our just
grievances could get to the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.
I have heard numerous religious leaders of the South call upon their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because
it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers say, follow this decree because integration is morally right and the Negro is
your brother. In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sidelines and
merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and
economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, "Those are social issues which the gospel has nothing to do with," and I
have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion which made a strange distinction
between bodies and souls, the sacred and the secular.
There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were
deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas
and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians
entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers of the peace" and
"outside agitators." But they went on with the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven" and had to obey God rather than
man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated."
They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.
Things are different now. The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often
the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average
community is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the
early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no
meaning for the twentieth century. I meet young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright
disgust.
I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid of
justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives
are presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of
America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America. Before the
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the pages of history the majestic word of
the Declaration of Independence, we were here. For more than two centuries our foreparents labored here without wages; they
made cotton king; and they built the homes of their masters in the midst of brutal injustice and shameful humiliation -- and yet
out of a bottomless vitality our people continue to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us,
the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal
will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.
I must close now. But before closing I am impelled to mention one other point in your statement that troubled me profoundly.
You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping "order" and "preventing violence." I don't believe you would
have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its angry violent dogs literally biting six unarmed, nonviolent
Negroes. I don't believe you would so quickly commend the policemen if you would observe their ugly and inhuman treatment of
Negroes here in the city jail; if you would watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you would see
them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys, if you would observe them, as they did on two occasions, refusing to give us
food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I'm sorry that I can't join you in your praise for the police department.





------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter From Birmingham Jail 6
It is true that they have been rather disciplined in their public handling of the demonstrators. In this sense they have been publicly
"nonviolent." But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the last few years I have consistently
preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. So I have tried to make it clear
that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or even more, to use
moral means to preserve immoral ends.
I wish you had commended the Negro demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer, and
their amazing discipline in the midst of the most inhuman provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They
will be the James Merediths, courageously and with a majestic sense of purpose facing jeering and hostile mobs and the
agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in
a seventy-two-year-old woman of Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to
ride the segregated buses, and responded to one who inquired about her tiredness with ungrammatical profundity, "My feets is
tired, but my soul is rested." They will be young high school and college students, young ministers of the gospel and a host of
their elders courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience's sake. One day
the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters they were in reality standing up for
the best in the American dream and the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage.
Never before have I written a letter this long -- or should I say a book? I'm afraid that it is much too long to take your precious
time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else is there
to do when you are alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think strange thoughts,
and pray long prayers?
If I have said anything in this letter that is an understatement of the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable impatience, I beg
you to forgive me. If I have said anything in this letter that is an overstatement of the truth and is indicative of my having a
patience that makes me patient with anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.

Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,
MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr

[ThirdTerm]

South Korea has a strong Christian tradition since the end of the Second World War. At least 30% Koreans are self-proclaimed Christians and they are unlikely to be fooled and conned by dubious Christian cults. The Reunification Church keeps a low profile in its home country for this very reason. Most Japanese people don't know anything about Christianity, making them easy targets. The Japanese branch is pejoratively called a donation squad by the Korean branch and Japan contributes up to 40% of all donations to the Korean sect. To make matter worse, the ruling LDP party is controlled by the Reunification Church. Dozens of LDP politicians came forward and confessed their relationships with the Korean sect, including the defence minister and a senior police official.

[Mike12]

South Korea has a strong Christian tradition since the end of the Second World War. At least 30% Koreans are self-proclaimed Christians and they are unlikely to be fooled and conned by dubious Christian cults. The Reunification Church keeps a low profile in its home country for this very reason. Most Japanese people don't know anything about Christianity, making them easy targets. The Japanese branch is pejoratively called a donation squad by the Korean branch and Japan contributes up to 40% of all donations to the Korean sect. To make matter worse, the ruling LDP party is controlled by the Reunification Church. Dozens of LDP politicians came forward and confessed their relationships with the Korean sect, including the defence minister and a senior police official.

I also rest. On the 7th day they rested, you rest? Resting time. It does almost makes you wonder what the Japanese get out of all that.

[Mike12]

I was simulating Reformed Korea . Discovered Reformed France (Huguenot) and check the relations. Like Asian Marco Pollo discovered France with European "unknown" attitudes on all of them.

The Emperor has acted as the open friend of Protestant missionaries, and while, some years since, he destroyed thirty heathen temples in an<i about Seoul, and officially deplored the annual waste of money at idol shrines, he gives Christian churches, schools, and hospitals ample room. A native Korean leader has said that the only hope of the country is in the churches; that his people lack moral character, and the churches are supplying it, and hence to con- vert and educate the common people is the one remedy for his land. going to a land like Korea and in trying to draw a nation from its seclusion, and to win its acceptance of Christianity with its attend- ant blessings, of course great care must be exercised in the manner of approach, and in every step that is taken.
The Boards of Missions that in 1884 decided to begin work in the Hermit Nation, acted wisely in ap- pointing three physicians and two cleri- cal men with their families. The story of Dr. Allen's arrival, providentially just previous to the emeute of 1884, and his success in saving the life of the favorite cousin of the Queen, holding the posi- tion equivalent to Prime Minister, is too well known to need repetition. This, however, as may be con- jectured, at once won for the doctor favor at court, which extended not only to his assistants of the medi- cal profession, but also to all connected with mission work, and soon embraced all Americans.

[Mike12]

Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the pages of history the majestic word of
the Declaration of Independence, we were here.They will be young high school and college students, young ministers of the gospel and a host of
their elders courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience's sake. One day
the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters they were in reality standing up for
the best in the American dream and the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal
will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.

The roots of Puritanism are to be found in the beginnings of the English Reformation. The name “Puritans” (they were sometimes called “precisionists”) was a term of contempt assigned to the movement by its enemies. Although the epithet first emerged in the 1560s, the movement began in the 1530s, when King Henry VIII repudiated papal authority and transformed the Church of Rome into a state Church of England. To Puritans, the Church of England retained too much of the liturgy and ritual of Roman Catholicism. Some Puritans favored a presbyterian form of church organization; others, more radical, began to claim autonomy for individual congregations. Still, others were content to remain within the structure of the national church but set themselves against Catholic and episcopal authority.

As they gained strength, Puritans were portrayed by their enemies as hairsplitters who slavishly followed their Bibles as guides to daily life or hypocrites who cheated the very neighbors they judged inadequate Christians. Yet the Puritan attack on the established church gained popular strength, especially in East Anglia and among the lawyers and merchants of London. The movement found wide support among these new professional classes, who saw in it a mirror for their growing discontent with economic restraints.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, an uneasy peace prevailed within English religious life, but the struggle over the tone and purpose of the church continued. Many men and women were more and more forced to contend with the dislocations–emotional as well as physical–that accompanied the beginnings of a market economy.

Subsistence farmers were called upon to enter the world of production for profit. Under the rule of primogeniture, younger sons tended to enter the professions (especially the law) with increasing frequency and seek their livelihood in the burgeoning cities. The English countryside was plagued by scavengers, highwaymen and vagabonds–a newly visible class of the poor who strained the ancient charity laws and pressed upon the townsfolk new questions of social responsibility.

Puritans in New England
In the early decades of the 17th century, some groups of worshipers began to separate themselves from the main body of their local parish church where preaching was inadequate and to engage an energetic “lecturer,” typically a young man with a fresh Cambridge degree, who was a lively speaker and steeped in reform theology. Some congregations went further, declared themselves separated from the national church, and remade themselves into communities of “visible saints,” withdrawn from the English City of Man into a self-proclaimed City of God.One such faction was a group of separatist believers in the Yorkshire village of Scrooby, who, fearing for their safety, moved to Holland in 1608 and then, in 1620, to the place they called Plymouth in New England. We know them now as the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock.

A decade later, a larger, better-financed group, mostly from East Anglia, migrated to Massachusetts Bay. There, they set up gathered churches on much the same model as the transplanted church at Plymouth (with deacons, preaching elders and, though not right away, a communion restricted to full church members, or “saints”). Puritanism in American Life
Puritanism gave Americans a sense of history as a progressive drama under the direction of God, in which they played a role akin to, if not prophetically aligned with, that of the Old Testament Jews as a new chosen people.

Perhaps most important, as Max Weber profoundly understood, was the strength of Puritanism as a way of coping with the contradictory requirements of Christian ethics in a world on the verge of modernity. It supplied ethics that somehow balanced charity and self-discipline. It counseled moderation within psychology that saw worldly prosperity as a sign of divine favor. Such ethics were particularly urgent in a New World where opportunity was rich, but the source of moral authority was obscure.

By the beginning of the 18th century, Puritanism had both declined and shown its tenacity. Though “the New England Way” evolved into a relatively minor system of organizing religious experience within the broader American scene, its central themes recur in the related religious communities of Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists and a whole range of evangelical Protestants. More recently, the word “Puritan” has once again become a pejorative epithet, meaning prudish, constricted and cold–as in H. L. Mencken’s famous remark that a Puritan is one who suspects “somewhere someone is having a good time.” Puritanism, however, had a more significant persistence in American life than as the religion of black-frocked caricatures. It survived, perhaps most conspicuously, in the secular form of self-reliance, moral rigor and political localism that became, by the Age of Enlightenment, virtually the definition of Americanism.

[Godstud]

Religion has nothing to do with morals and ethics.

[Mike12]

:lol: Religion has nothing to do with morals and ethics.

Moral: a lesson, especially one concerning what is right or prudent, that can be derived from a story, a piece of information, or an experience
(morals)
a person's standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do:

eth·ics
[ˈeTHiks]
NOUN
moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity:
the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles:

my good friend and the director of the
foundation for moral law
in birmingham dr mel glenn who's
responsible and has been
for the raising of attorney's fees
a lot of thanks
dr melvin has done an outstanding job
and i appreciate him very much and it's
very important because at this time we
havea lot of attorneys fees i want to thank
the speakers and the
singers and everyone who has
participated in this
especially the men who have devoted
their time and come from great distances
like dr alan keyes my good friend
dr lawrence white dr
jerry falwell howard phillips
sandy rios
i don't believe that he's been
recognized but i have a friend from new
york city
rabbi yehuda levin laban levin i see it
right
rabbi 11 represents over a thousand
rabbis
who support and understandably so the
ten commandments of god
and my greatest appreciation
belongs to you people who've left their
homes in their schools and their
businesses
to come down here to montgomery alabama
to stand up for their inalienable rights
to acknowledge god
that is the issue
it's not about me i will pass away
as every politician and every pastor
will but the laws of god will remain forever
it's not about politics it's not about
religion
you know i've heard so many in in
political fields
will not participate because it's about
4:12
religion and i hear the pastors that
won't participate because it's about
politics
let's get it straight it's about one
thing it's about the acknowledgment of
the god
upon which this nation and our laws are
founded
those aren't my words those are the
words of judge myron thompson
in this case when he said and i quote
the issue
is can the state acknowledge god
he said no
if this ruling is allowed to stand it
will reverberate from state to state
to state to the nation's capital and the
acknowledgment of god will be taken from
us
if we sit quietly by while this
inalienable right is taken
even the rocks and the trees and the
stones that you see will cry out
if i should fail to do my duty in this
case
for fear of giving offense i would
consider myself guilty of treason toward
my country
and have enacted this loyalty toward the
majesty of heaven which i revere both
all earthly kings
years ago i expressed my sentiments in a
poem that i wrote
told entitled our american birthright
one nation under god was their cry
indeed their declaration upon the laws
of nature and of nature's god
they built a mighty nation but unlike
mankind before them
who had walked this earth and sod these
men would never question
the sovereignty of god that all men were
created
was a truth self-evident and to secure
the rights that god gave us was the role
of government and should any form of government become
destructive of this end
it was their right indeed their duty a
new one to begin
so with the firm reliance on divine
providence for protection
they pledged their sacred honor and they
sought his wise direction
they lifted up an appeal to god for all
the world to see
and vowed their independence forever to
be free
but i'm glad they're not here with us
to see the mess we're in how we've given
up of
righteousness for a life of indulgent
sin
for when abortion is no longer called
murder when sodomy is deemed a right
then good is now called evil and
darkness is now called life
and no longer do we need a god when man
is in control
for the only truth self-evident is in
the latest poll
but with man as his own master we failed
to count the cost
our precious freedoms vanish and our
liberties are lost
our children are told they can't pray in
school and they teach them evolution
why can't they see the fear of god is
the only true solution
our schools have become the battleground
while all across the
land christians just shrug their
shoulders afraid to take a stand
and from the grave you can hear their
voices crying
the victory's already been won just
glorify the father as did his own son
and when your work on this earth is done
when you've traveled
where they trod you'll leave the land
that was left to you one nation
in the words of lincoln we have been the
recipient of the choice's bounties of
heaven
we have been preserved these many years
in peace and prosperity
we have grown in numbers wealth and
power as no other nation has ever grown
but we have forgotten god we have
forgotten the gracious hand which
preserved us
in peace and multiplied enriched and
strengthened us
and we have vainly imagined in the
deceitfulness of our own hearts
that all of these blessings were
produced by some superior wisdom and
virtue of our own
intoxicated with unbroken success we
have become too self-sufficient
to feel the necessity for redeeming and
preserving grace
too proud to pray to the god who made us
you know men of fowler and women of
valor have died through the centuries
preserving this inalienable right
we are fighting all over this globe to
preserve liberty for others
but many people don't understand that
we're fighting a battle here and every
one of you no matter how young
no matter how old male
female or engaged in this bible
you're a soldier if you don't know it
but most people don't know what that
battle's about it's a spiritual warfare
you see today we face another war fought
not upon some distance sure
nor against the foe that you can see but
one is ruthless as can be
you'll take your life and your children
too
he'll say there's nothing you can do
he'll make you think that wrong is right
just by deciding to stand and fight
yeah for when we face the wrath of hell
against those gates we shall prevail
across our land it's time for christians
to take a stand
and when your work and when your work on
this earth
is done when the battle is over
and the victory is won and through all
the earth his praise will ring
and all the heavenly angels sing
will be enough just to see the sun
and hear him say my child will done
you kept my faith strong and true
i knew that i could count on you thank
you
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxP0Zb3Wm0Y8 ... 5Wg0i-ba7u

[Godstud]

Your wall of text is nothing but ancient bullshit.

Religions only apply morals and ethics when it suits them and the rest of the time are the worst offenders for ignoring these things.

[Mike12]

Your wall of text is nothing but ancient bullshit.

Religions only apply morals and ethics when it suits them and the rest of the time are the worst offenders for ignoring these things.

You are building a faith system in atheism as close-minded and closed systematically as anyone else. Religions are the attraction of 2,000 years of everyone who would ever write. Most European nations have a writing system its from the monastary and the most ancient stories like Beowulf, a copy from a monk. The goal is peace and academic among most in religion. The wars like ethnic hate of the jewish people, that's not nearly religion. Religion isn't creating divides. Law is often viewed as reasonable in the custom of religions and their lawcodes. There's losers going into religion like there's losers going into every situation.

[Godstud]

I am not religious. I don't support ANY religion so I am building nothing to divide people.

[Mike12]

I am not religious. I don't support ANY religion so I am building nothing to divide people.

Elizabeth II visited the Presbyterian Church of Scotland to say the Church's work is the unity of mankind and about its progress, is that the Queen reversing your opinion on what established national Churches Do, do?

[Godstud]

I don't care what the Queen of England does, or does not, do. If she goes to church or abstains is, quite simply, "Not my problem.".