Spiritual wickedness in high places

This evening’s edition of the Monroe Evening News (the paper that sponsors this blog) had a beautifully written letter to the editor. The author, Doug Stein painted an eloquent word picture of a country that used to be great but was undermined by those who took God out of the schools.

It is an interesting concept that has a lot of appeal, but just like George Washington chopping down the cherry tree, it is fantasy.

The problem is that this fantasy is being preached from many pulpits. It is where conservatives and fundamentalist Christians intersect. They agree that “liberal-activist” judges and the ACLU have ruined what was once a great country.

If you were a white protestant landholding man, this has been a great country from its founding.

The American Indian, on the other hand, is living the results of four hundred years of ethnic cleansing.

Quakers and Wiccans were tortured and killed by the Puritan Christians.

Catholics had no reliable rights until the revolutionary war. It took another 200 years for the first and only Catholic to be elected president.

It took two hundred years and a Civil War to abolish slavery. It took another hundred years for African Americans to gain equal legal status.

Women couldn’t vote until 1920.

Democracy is messy, contentious, and wildly emotional. Don’t let these revisionists whitewash our history of struggle in an effort to make some self serving argument that our current problems are the result of turning away from God. Nothing could be further from the truth. The United States stands alone among industrialized and educated countries in our overwhelming belief in God.

We also possess a vote, a constitution, respect for the rule of law, and a belief that we have the ability to make a better life for our children. It’s that belief that drove the colonists and the pioneers that built this country. It is that same belief that drives immigrants (legal and not) to come today. It may not be as romantic or tidy as the story told by Mr. Stein, but I’m proud to be part of a country where every generation has their story of how they made things better.