The misperceptions and the wide chasm between those who seek to impose their brand of Christianity on the entire nation and those who see any reference to God as a threat to reason and the Constitution is vast and in my opinion completely unnecessary. In a sense, both sides are right and wrong. It is wrong to think that the belief in God played no role in the founding of our country but it is also wrong to assume that the founding fathers were devout men who created a “Christian nation”. Christians espousing this political agenda should know better than to try to create the kingdom of heaven on earth by forcing people to act righteous thru the law. Jesus Christ himself railed against the legalistic dictates of the Pharisees partly on account of the fact that it forces people to act righteous rather than it coming from their own heart.
Forcing people to condemn others for their lifestyle or for their differing beliefs is so completely opposite of the character of the founder of their religion that I wonder if they ever step back enough from their hatred and misguided sense of oppression to see this.
The secular left too misses the boat when it seeks to remove the oldest and most potent reminder that this country and civilization itself needs moral guidelines to ensure that anarchy and lawlessness don’t run amok. The Ten Commandments, prayer, ethics, and the golden rule had long been standard tradition in this country because this nation was founded primarily by people of the Christian faith. This should be a matter of fact and not something to scoff or ridicule or seek to erase from memory or tradition.
If both sides could just let go of their prejudices and misconceptions of this country and of each other, there is much common ground that can be found. Some denominations such as Southern Baptists do achieve this middle ground where there is belief in the separation of Church and State. And contrary to popular misinformation, many Christians are liberals, Democrats and for church state separation. Mostly on account of the fact that historically, the alignment of the church and state has never bode well for Christianity.
