Just thinking out loud – as the saying goes.
I’m behind and supportive of all measures that our leaders are putting out to try and keep us healthy and alive (except closing the gun shops, figuring that since crooks can get guns anytime, so should law-abiding citizens be able to).
I am not an alarmist! (Exclamation point added to show that I might be after all.) Wash your hands, keep safe distances of separation, wear a mask if you feel you should, and for goodness sakes, if you’re elderly and sick, don’t, under any conditions, leave your house. People are dying, and not just older (more mature, that is) citizens, but young, strong, healthy, good looking ones as well. This stuff is as real as it gets, and President Trump has told us to brace for a “very, very painful two weeks.” And if you’re anything like me, you don’t really expect the next two weeks to significantly reduce the threat. I am not an alarmist, but the medical alarms are clanging loudly everywhere, and that, because there is real reason for them to do so. Understood and accepted.
This week is Palm Sunday, and next week Easter (we celebrate the resurrection of our LORD and Saviour)! If there exist any “high days” (actually there aren’t any) within the Christian faith, these are them. But one thing that has occurred without being specifically stated or excessively discussed is that the government has the power to close churches. Disobey and you may be arrested. The 1st Amendment under our Bill of Rights states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;…” and also included in that 1st Amendment are these words “…. or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,…”
Well, Bill of Rights or no, we have pretty much accepted that if the government wishes to abridge those rights of ours, it can. We’ve accepted this without it even being discussed. Yes, of course they are doing this for our own good, and for the good of our families, and we can trust them. They wouldn’t do anything to hurt us, …. except for those half-million babies whose lives they terminate every year, again, for our own good. Notice I did not say they “killed” those small persons, because since I no longer have my right to assemble, and since I no longer have my right of the free exercise of my religion, I might not have my right of free speech. My rights no longer end at the point of my neighbor’s nose, they end at the point of the pen of the politician. And lest we forget, those babies were not “killed,” but they were alive, and now they are not. I guess I’m not sure of the proper word to describe what happened.
Remember, I am not an alarmist! But we Americans have surrendered our right to assemble and to worship. In the great history of our great United States of America, this has never happened, and now it has! It is absolutely a proper practice to conduct ourselves wisely under these truly perilous days, but whether to exercise my constitutional right to assemble at my church and with my church to worship my God, the LORD of this country, should have been left under my jurisdiction. It was not!
Remember, I am not an alarmist !!!
Love and prayers to all
Pastor
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