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Abominable Atheistic
Agenda:
No Prayer for Hurricane Victims
It
is never a good idea for a pastor to lose his temper. Pastors
should always be loving, kind, and courteous, no matter what situation
they face. I am told, whenever I write items for public reading,
such as sermons, devotions, or editorials, I should always remain
calm and collected in order to make a respectable presentation.
However, I read something this afternoon that caused me to discover
a little more Irish in my blood than I was previously aware of.
For those of you who prefer to read the more dignified and composed
opinion, you may stop reading now. The
World Net Daily news just published an article on the Internet
about an announcement made by an atheistic organization relating
to the late hurricane disaster. Ellen Johnson, President of American
Atheists, just blasted both President Bush and Louisiana Governor
Kathleen Blanco for encouraging people to pray for victims of
the catastrophe. Johnson was quoted as saying that Bush and Blanco
“should not be violating the Constitution by telling people
to pray for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It's unconstitutional
for government officials to be promoting religion; and besides,
judging from the speed of some relief efforts, officials should
be busy working instead of preaching.” At times like this,
my wife warns me that I should watch my blood pressure.
As
I predicted last week, disaster certainly brings out the atheistic
soapboxes with proud and arrogant defiance against God and truth.
However, I have never heard of such ungodly, outrageous, ignorant,
wicked, insensitive, and tyrannical words, either spoken or written,
as to upbraid the President of the United States and/or the Governor
of a disaster stricken area for urging the people of our country
to pray for people in need! We are talking about victims of an
area where many thousands are believed to be dead, thousands more
may be exposed or infected with deadly diseases, and hundreds
of thousands of homeless have lost everything and have been scattered
over 16 states in order to have shelter and a place to sleep!
How dare this woman lecture two persons in such great, and awesome
positions of terrible responsibility at a time like this, by telling
them to stop calling for prayer to God for the helpless and hurting
and dying!
Of
course, we all endorse freedom of speech in America, and if a
person wants to believe there is no God, that is their right.
However it is not their right to force their lack of religion
on the rest of us who believe. There is a very strange tendency
in our country today to reject the will of the majority in order
to subscribe to the will of the minority. I have never quite understood
that philosophy of government. Perhaps that is a subject for another
time. Nevertheless, I absolutely refuse to grant the right of
the atheist to tell me (much less the President of the United
States) that I don’t have the right to encourage anyone to
pray for anyone, especially to pray for those in dire and desperate
circumstances. Aside from my own religious conviction that it
is my right and privilege to pray and ask others to pray, it is
also the will and conviction of the vast majority of Americans
to seek help from God in prayer. Poll after poll has been taken
over the years, and there is no question about the fact that most
Americans believe in prayer and spend some time praying. I won’t
say that I agree with the theology of all of these individuals,
but that is not our point, here. America has the right to pray,
and America’s leaders have the right to call on her people
to pray, and the American people respect and appreciate that right
as exercised by her leaders.
Johnson
refers to such a call for prayer as “unconstitutional.”
I will demand to know, where and how could such requests be “unconstitutional”?
The primary and fundamental statement regarding religion in all
of the Constitution of the United States is declared in the First
Amendment which is stated thus: Congress shall make no law respecting
an 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. What the President
and the Governor of Louisiana has done has nothing to do with
Congress. Johnson can call this “promoting religion”
or anything else she wants to say, but government leaders have
the right, as any other man or woman, to the free speech and free
exercise of religion that this very amendment guarantees.
I
am well aware of the fact that government officials and administrators
from the national to the local level have all been under severe
criticism alleging a lack of speed in responding to the crisis.
It occurs to me that it may be that the kind of outrageous criticism
leveled by Johnson and the American Atheists could do far more
to damage or hinder the progress of rendering aid, that doing
any good, from any perspective.
The
final outrage of such an announcment revolves around the lack
of appreciation for the spiritual nature of souls who are in turmoil.
“Feed their bodies, give them water to drink, give them medical
aid, give them shelter…”, Johnson would say, “…but
ignore any need of God they may have, because such needs are non-existent.”
Go to the poor helpless children who are separated from their
parents in this disaster and tell them, “Sorry kids, you
are out of luck. There is no God around to help you!” Tell
the individuals who have lost their spouses, parents, or children,
or other loved ones… “Too bad. That loved one is nothing
but a dead corpse back there floating below a levee somewhere.
There is certainly no such thing as heaven, so you’ll never
see him or her again.” Such evil attitudes could actually
hurt individuals worse than the looters who shot at them or stole
from them. The atheist’s ideas on life endorse the concept
that man is simply no more than an animal. Man has no soul; man
has no spirit. When you die, you simply fertlize the dirt. Get
over it. Such is the gospel that Ellen Johnson and the American
Atheists have for the hundreds of thousands that have been afflicted
by the worst natural disaster in the history of our nation. Perhaps
the greatest retribution that we Christians could inflict upon
Ellen Johnson is that we might pray for her.
James
Sanders
Pastor,
September 7, 2005
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