Tennessee Attempts to Legislate Christianity Into Power

At one point in my life, I called myself a Christian. I read and studied the Bible on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. I discussed it with laypeople and leaders, some of whom I still hold in high regard for their knowledge and understanding of the text. Also during this time, if you've met me later in my life and might struggle to believe it, I was also employed as a part-time music director for a small church in Chicago. But these kinds of political stunts by the American Christian community are a big part of why I left the church forever. I could no longer sit idly by while an active and vocal arm of Christianity was clearly making attempts to gain even more political power than they'd been granted by Eisenhower through Billy Graham and then Reagan via Falwell, something that the oh-so-holy and enshrined Founding Fathers were trying to prevent to the extent that quotes to that end are actually engraved in stone on erected temples in their names in Washington D.C.

The Christian message, in my eyes, was becoming strident and unforgiving, exactly the opposite of the kinds of things that attracted me to the religion in the first place. I had a choice to make: I could either remain a part of an organization that I had come to recognize as one to reject its own principles in favor of power and attempt to lead by example and advocate for change from within or I could simply step outside and watch the circus from the sidelines.

And what a circus it has been! Since I left the church, watching the Tea Party movement and their ilk of Bible-thumping power mongers attempt to simultaneously keep the rights of others at bay while bolstering their own power has only solidified my resolve to stay out of churches and as far away from Christians as possible as their message has long since devolved into self-righteous, aggrandizing chest thumping that I find more in line with the Roman Empire they once held in equally low regard, by using the power granted to them by and through government to require all to tow their line.

As an addendum, I understand that many Christians may also not agree with these attempts to legislate a state religion. If you are one of these, I believe you also are faced with the same choice, to either attempt from within your own churches to keep your organization from impeding the rights of others to worship or not in their own way or to sit by and do nothing and let the problem continue to fester. If you agree with the actions of the Tennessee legislature, you need to develop your understanding of the teachings of not only the Bible but of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and learn what exactly those Founding Fathers said regarding religion and legislature. You may be surprised by what you find.