Protecting Our Faith By Respecting the Constitution

[rug]

08/22/2012
By Rev. Paul Wood.

Paul Wood is a minister at the First United Methodist Church in Cheraw, South Carolina. His blog is part of this week’s “Religious Freedom Goes to School” blog series. Share your story about religious freedom in South Carolina’s public schools by reporting potential religious freedom violations to us.

As a Christian minister in South Carolina for 32 years, I occasionally discuss in my sermons the importance of the separation of church and state in preserving religious freedom. My main message during these sermons is surprising to some: Religious freedom thrives in the United States because the government cannot favor or promote one faith, not in spite of it.

The Church is always stronger, more vital, and more faithful to the Gospel when it is not attempting to contort itself to the needs and desires of politicians. Moreover, Christianity has always declined in vitality when it has forced its will on people. Indeed, Jesus did not carry out a ministry of power over the other but love for the other. In fact, the only true Christian faith is one that is freely chosen. We Christians should do more to woo people to Christ and less to force our understanding of Christ upon them.

If we want to keep our religious institutions strong and attract new adherents to our Christian faith, then we must vigorously protect and reinforce the wall of separation required by our Constitution. That’s why, last year, I spoke out in support of an atheist family, the Andersons, in Chesterfield County when, with the help of the ACLU, they sued over an evangelistic worship service forced on students in an area public middle school.

http://www.aclu.org/blog/religion-belief/protecting-our-faith-respecting-constitution

[cbayer]

1. Good piece and agree with him wholeheartedly.

Also glad to see the ACLU taking a more active role in this issue. I would hope most see them as a neutral third party with no secondary agenda, and that's good, imo.

[dmallind]

2. Good for him. Hope he reminds people the vast majority of ACLU 1A cases are FOR the religious side.

[cleanhippie]

3. Awesome. More of this is desperately needed.

[SarahM32]

4. Hmmm.... A good step evangelical Christians should take. But ...

Rev. Wood states: "We Christians should do more to woo people to Christ and less to force our understanding of Christ upon them."

I agree that evangelical Christians should not try to "force our understanding of Christ upon them." However, I think one of the false doctrines of Christianity is the one that causes Wood to say: "We Christians should do more to woo people to Christ."

Granted, trying to "woo people to Christ" would be better than trying to impose their religious beliefs on the nation. But evangelical Christianity, I think, misses the point of Jesus' core message, and it misses the point of the Founding Fathers of the U.S.A. regarding religious freedom.

Furthermore, those who consider themselves "fundamentalist Christians" fundamentally misunderstand what "Christ" is.

The word Christ is from the Greek word Christus, which means the same thing as the Jewish word Mashiach (Messiah in English). It's a title, meaning "anointed one." So Christ is not Jesus' last name, but a title that was given to many Jewish leaders and teachers who came before Jesus.

http://messenger.cjcmp.org/christianity.html
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