Just Suppose

Some people, it seems, get offended way too easily. I mean, isn't that what all this prayer hullabaloo is all about -- people getting offended? Those of us in the majority are always tippy-toeing around, trying to make sure we don't step on the toes or hurt the feelings of the humorless. And you can bet there's a lawyer standing on every corner making sure we don't.

Take this prayer deal. It's absolutely ridiculous. Some atheist goes to a high school football game, hears a kid say a short prayer before the game and gets offended.

So he hires a lawyer and goes to court and asks somebody to pay him a whole bunch of money for all the damage done to him. Damaged for life by a 30-second prayer? Am I missing something here?

I don't believe in Santa Claus, but I'm not going to sue somebody for singing a Ho-Ho-Ho song in December. I don't agree with Darwin, but I didn't go out and hire a lawyer when my high school teacher taught his theory of evolution.

Life, liberty or your pursuit of happiness will not be endangered because someone says a 30-second prayer before a football game. So what's the big deal?

It's not like somebody is up there reading the entire book of Acts. They're just talking to a God they believe in and asking him to grant safety to the players on the field and the fans going home from the game.

"But it's a Christian prayer," some will argue. Yes, and this is the United States of America, a country founded on Christian principles. And we are in the Bible Belt. According to our very own phone book, Christian churches outnumber all others better than 200-to-1. So what would you expect -- somebody chanting Hare Krishna?

If I went to a football game in Jerusalem, I would expect to hear a Jewish prayer. If I went to a soccer game in Baghdad, I would expect to hear a Muslim prayer. If I went to a ping pong match in China, I would expect to hear someone pray to Buddha. And I wouldn't be offended. It wouldn't bother me one bit. When in Rome...

"But what about the atheists?" is another argument. What about them? Nobody is asking them to be baptized. We're not going to pass the collection plate. Just humor us for 30 seconds.

If that's asking too much, bring a Walkman or a pair of ear plugs. Go to the bathroom. Visit the concession stand. Call your lawyer.

Unfortunately, one or two will make that call. One or two will tell thousands what they can and cannot do. I don't think a short prayer at a football game is going to shake the world's foundations.

Nor do I believe that not praying will result in more serious injuries on the field or more fatal car crashes after the game. In fact, I'm not so sure God would even be at all these games if he didn't have to be. That's just one of the downsides of omnipresence. If God really liked sports, the Russians would never have won a single gold medal, New York would never play in a World Series and Deion Sanders' toe would be healed by now. Christians are just sick and tired of turning the other cheek while our courts strip us of all our rights.

Our parents and grandparents taught us to pray before eating, to pray before we go to sleep.

Our Bible tells us just to pray without ceasing. Now a handful of people and their lawyers are telling us to cease praying. God, help us. And if that last sentence offends you -- well ... just sue me.

Something To Ponder...

JUST SUPPOSE that at every ball game, graduation, prom, etc., someone who has had enough of stupid, anti-historical court decisions had the guts to start reciting the Lord's Prayer loudly, and others joined in, then more,until hundreds participated

And JUST SUPPOSE this spread all over our land until this became standard practice in hundreds of schools -- then thousands-then tens of thousands. Just what would local school boards do? Expel half the student body? What would a Federal district court do? Order hundreds of nonviolent, decent minors jailed? Or thousands?

Just what would the Supreme Court do about it -- issue more edicts? What if millions decided the Supreme Court was out of its league and said "So what?"

JUST SUPPOSE hundreds of brave school board members, local judges, prosecutors, and others, each in their own area of authority, refused to intervene, realizing that we have already tried it the other way, and the result was a modern-day Sodom and Gomorra of immorality and senseless violence.

JUST SUPPOSE this then spread next into classroom after classroom, and either a brave student or a brave teacher started the Lord's Prayer (or Psalm 100, or a Bible reading, etc.) each morning, until hundreds of thousands stood up and did their part and stopped cowering before the destructive, God-hating secular attitudes of the pagan minority who parrot the media line.

JUST SUPPOSE every God-fearing Christian participated-peacefully, nonviolently, but firmly and continually. Where would they get enough jails to hold us all? How would they prosecute hundreds of thousands? It is far more than the government can do to even stop the flow of illegal drugs, despite their best efforts, and overcrowded jails. Hardened criminals walk after doing only half of their sentence to ease jail crowding. Even if they try to pick on a handful to make examples of them, what if hundreds of thousands stood up to the tyranny of the minority and demanded their freedom of religion back? They can't build enough jails or courts to begin to deal with such a movement.

During the Civil Rights battles of the 60's, black people decided they had had enough and stood up to the system -- a few dozen here, a few hundred there -- and eventually the whole country heard, and repented, and CHANGED. Racial repression was an evil whose time was over.

But now, there is another battle-and the stakes are even higher. The future of all children, white, black, and otherwise, is at stake. No other country on earth allows a tiny minority of impractical anti-religious bigots to censor their people's right to free religious expression. Even Russian public schools show videos of the life and teachings of Jesus now. We tend to get exactly the kind of government we deserve.

If you make a time line or a graph, you will see that the exponential increase in public school violence, pregnancy, and foul language all started at exactly the time the Supreme Court threw prayer and Bible reading out of the schools. We told God we didn't need HIM, and the results speak for themselves.

JUST SUPPOSE hundreds of Christians passed this message on to all their friends, leaders, and contacts.

JUST SUPPOSE hundreds of churches, organizations and ministries passed this message on to their constituencies with a request to reprint, re-paste, and repeat it wherever possible.Once upon a time the Church was the moral conscience and spiritual lighthouse of the nation. Now, most congregations are impotent, minor-league social welfare agencies or mutual comfort societies with no impact on the world around their little enclave.

JUST SUPPOSE -- What do you suppose you should do? YOU MAY NOT KNOW WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS, BUT KNOWING WHO HOLDS THE FUTURE MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE. YOU DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH THIS -- TAKE ACTION, PASS IT ON, OR JUST SIMPLY READ IT AND DO NOTHING!!!   THE CHOICE IS YOURS.

[ By: Nick Gholson, TIMES RECORD NEWS, Wichita Falls, Texas -- from Bill Dorman ]