The American Spectator

Another Perspective

We are lectured daily by our betters in the media and academia on the continuing dissolution of our freedoms under the oppressive reign of George W. Bush and his sneering sidekick, Richard B. Cheney. The dreaded duo and the rest of the vast right wing conspiracy have been especially vilified for curtailing free speech and accused of using nefarious methods to squelch opposition.

But the truth is, it is our friends on the left who have been attacking our most fundamental rights and freedoms for decades; forcing their will on the rest of us through unelected judges, the media and most effectively, our education system. Not only are our children subjected to textbook screeds on the evils of Western Civilization, but our college campuses, once the home of independent thought, have become dreary domiciles of forced conformity which oddly claim to champion the goal of "diversity."

However, it is quite apparent that this diversity does not extend to religious freedom of opinion. In their quest to drive their socialist agenda at all levels, it should now be clear that one of the main leftist aims is to totally extinguish God from our public life, thus ridding "bitter" Americans of their addiction to the opiate of the masses.

In today's America, any discussion based on religious principles is tantamount to imposing one's own "mythical belief system" on the rest of us.

Of course, this is not the case when declaring that changes in the weather are caused by human activity or that homosexuality should be encouraged and promoted to our youth as an acceptable lifestyle. Certain truths that have been accepted for thousands of years are of no consequence to an "enlightened" generation who must silence truth's message to advance their own.

A CASE IN POINT is Crystal Dixon, the associate vice president for Human Resources at the University of Toledo, who has been suspended for publicly airing her opinion about gay rights.

Ms. Dixon, a black alumna of UT, wrote an opinion piece in the Toledo Free Press in response to an editorial decrying certain perceived injustices against the rights of homosexuals committed by the University.

In her column, she began by repudiating the laughable notion that, "those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are 'civil rights victims.'" She went on to cite statistics that homosexuals actually earn more annually than the average American. But her real crime was this:

There is a divine order. God created human kind male and female (Genesis 1:27). God created humans with an inalienable right to choose. There are consequences for each of our choices, including those who violate God's divine order. It is base human nature to revolt and become indignant when the world or even God Himself, disagrees with our choice that violates His divine order. Jesus Christ loves the sinner but hates the sin (John 8:1-11.)

Michael Miller, editor-in-chief of Toledo Free Press and author of the original op-ed piece, oddly expressed in it his "sadness that there is so much needless public struggle and strife based on something as private as sexuality."

Yet those folks who are fond of preaching that we are not to legislate aberrant sexual behavior because "it's nobody's business what goes on behind closed doors," are the same folks who insist on legislation like hate crime laws, which seek to punish that which is innermost to all people; human thought and emotion.

Certain of these thoughts and emotions can only be restrained by higher laws, those of God; and the punishment for the actions which proceed from them should be meted out by persons in accordance with those laws.

Is it any wonder then, that a favorite target for our friends on the left is any public display of the Ten Commandments? Any notion that we should be governed by anyone or anything higher than ourselves is an anathema to the relativists who shape our modern culture and is strangely considered a crime against diversity.

This veneration of diversity is a hollow religion that embraces only those beliefs that are favored by the few, yet excludes that which should be common to all; the public worship of their Creator. This is nicely illustrated by gay activist Kim Welter who scolds, "It is unfortunate that someone who works in Human Resources for the University of Toledo would publicly express beliefs more appropriate for her place of worship."

TIME WAS, OF COURSE, when the free and open exchange of ideas, religious or otherwise, was celebrated not only on colleges campuses, but everywhere else, including various taverns where the idea of American independence grew.

Those on the far left have managed to erase from the minds of most of our citizens the fact that our nation was founded on the fundamental principle that we are "endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights," and that our government was formed to "secure these rights." Any attempt at separating one's religious convictions from his duties as a citizen would have been repulsive to any American up until a few short decades ago.

Oddly enough, a man who clearly understands all of this is Pope Benedict XVI, a German by birth. When he came to our country last month, one of his main messages was on the subject of religion in public life. He boldly told the striped-pants crowd at the United Nations:

It is inconceivable, then, that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves -- their faith -- in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one's rights...The full guarantee of religious liberty cannot be limited to the free exercise of worship, but has to give due consideration to the public dimension of religion, and hence to the possibility of believers playing their part in building the social order.

The social order in this country of over 200 million Christians will never be repaired until those Christians dare to invoke the name of Him whom they love, and take an active part in returning God to the public square.

topics:
Education, Business, Religion, Law, United Nations