CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR PASTOR SAEED'S RELEASE, - 2atest at info@action.aclj.org)"American Pastor Saeed (who just started an 8 year sentence for helping the underground churches in Iran) - As Iran continues to abuse imprisoned American Pastor Saeed Abedini, its goal is now clear -- force Pastor Saeed to deny Christ.
The stars come out for Pastor Saeed - by Gina Dalfonzo, February 18, 2013; http://aclj.org/Tags/%23SaveSaeed
PLEASE PRAY: "Libya Arrests Suspected Christian Missionaries ," February 16, 2013; "Four foreigners were arrested in Libya on suspicion of distributing books about Christianity and proselytizing, a Libyan police spokesman said on Saturday. Spreading Christianity is a crime in the predominantly Muslim North African county. The four were arrested in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday and are under investigation for printing and distributing books that proselytize Christianity. Police said they found 45,000 books in their possession and that another 25,000 have already been distributed. The suspects are from South Africa, Egypt, South Korea, and one holds both Swedish and U.S. Nationality. The U.S. Embassy in Libya has declined comment. "(Sources: CBS News, USA Today, Associated Press) [So much for the so-called "Arab Spring." - Stan]
As the Lord leads, PLEASE PRAY: · For the timely release of the arrested missionaries. · For all who share God’s loving salvation in Muslim countries.
DECLARE YOUR SUPPORT FOR TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE. Please SIGN THE PETITION BELOW to declare your support for the traditional definition of marriage and in support of an amicus brief to go to the Supreme Court as it considers the redefinition of marriage on March 26th. Their decision on whether to uphold the Definition of Marriage Act passed by Congress in 1996 could be as piviotal to marriage in America as Roe v. Wade was to the definition of the sancity of human life in America. MOST IMPORTANTLY, please keep the upcoming Supreme Court review of this case and their final decision in your PRAYERS.
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[AS I SEE IT: While Monday was the "official" President's Day, as I posted an item for President Lincoln's birthday on the 12th, I here post an item about President Washington on what would have been his 281st birthday (born 1732). Many today would point to Lincoln as our greatest President. But I believe he WAS great for his time but Washington was not just great for his but was indispensible for so many aspects of our nation even existing and being as strong and free as it is. I believe he wasn't just 'great," but he was our MVP President. My hope that some movie producer would do a movie focusing on even just one aspect of Washington's life, but unlike the recent movie "Lincoln" basing it on historical accauracy more, esp. the role of Washington's faith. Something to pray about. - Stan]
"George Washington’s Example on Religious Liberty," ,by Julia Shaw On February 18, 2013
Instead of celebrating George Washington’s birthday, today we’ve lumped him in together with no-names including Millard Fillmore and William Henry Harrison as we celebrate a generic “Presidents’ Day.”
But George Washington was not simply a President. He was the indispensible man of the American Founding [1]. Washington’s words, thoughts, and deeds as a military commander, a President, and a patriotic leader make him arguably the greatest statesman in our history.
All Presidents can learn from Washington’s leadership in foreign policy, in upholding the rule of law, and—especially now—in the importance of religion and religious liberty. While the Obama Administration claims to be “accommodating” Americans’ religious freedom concerns regarding the Health and Human Services (HHS) Obamacare mandate, it is actually trampling religious freedom. President Washington set a tremendous example for the way that Presidents should handle such conflicts.
Washington knew that religion and morality are essential [2] to creating the conditions for decent politics. “Where,” Washington asked, “is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?”
Religion and morality are, Washington wrote, essential to the happiness of mankind: “A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity.”
To match his high praise of religion, Washington had a robust understanding of religious liberty. Freedom allows religion, in the form of morality and through the teachings of religion, to exercise an unprecedented influence over private and public opinion. Religious liberty shapes mores, cultivates virtues, and provides an independent source of moral reasoning and authority. In his letter [3] to the Newport Hebrew congregation—at the time the largest community of Jewish families in America—President Washington grounded America’s religious and civil liberties in natural rights, and not mere toleration.Washington also confronted the limits of religious liberty. In one letter, Washington praised [4] the Quakers for being good citizens but chastised their pacifism: “Your principles and conduct are well known to me; and it is doing the people called Quakers no more than justice to say, that (except their declining to share with others the burden of the common defense) there is no denomination among us, who are more exemplary and useful citizens.” Yet Washington ended his letter assuring them of his “wish and desire that the laws may always be as extensively accommodated” to their practice.
Such a true accommodation upholds the rule of law and religious liberty, because it allows men and women of religious faith to follow the law and their faith. In his letter to the Quakers, Washington explained that government is instituted to “protect the persons and consciences of men from oppression.” Further, it was the duty of rulers “not only to abstain from [oppression] themselves, but, according to their stations, to prevent it in others.”
Washington’s advice has gone unheeded. We are told that religion and politics require a strict separation; that religion is a hindrance to happiness and therefore has been gradually stripped from the public square. We’re told that displays of religious faith don’t support the community but are downright offensive to non-adherents. The Supreme Court has supported and extenuated this tortured logic [5]. Since the 1940s, the Court has put religion and religious liberty into a smaller and smaller box. At best, religion is a private good [6]—but one that and should not be presented to others. And religious beliefs have no bearing on public life.
We can see where this logic goes [7]. Under Obamacare all insurance plans must cover, at no cost to the insured, abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives, sterilization, and patient education and counseling for women of reproductive age. Illustrating the Obama Administration’s narrow view of religion, only formal houses of worship are afforded an exemption from the coercive mandate. Many other religious employers such as Catholic hospitals, Christian schools, and faith-based pregnancy care centers are forced to provide and pay for coverage of services that, as a matter of faith, they find morally objectionable.
Even the recently proposed “accommodation” to the rule isn’t really an accommodation. As Sarah Torre explains [8], the suggested fix “fails to encompass many employers—and certainly all individuals—with moral or religious objections to complying with the mandate.” To comply with the mandate requires religious men and women to violate church doctrine and their consciences. Under President Obama, we have returned to religious toleration, as defined by a bureaucrat somewhere.
Maybe that’s why we shouldn’t celebrate all Presidents equally. George Washington “was the directing spirit without which there would have been no independence, no Union, no Constitution, and no Republic [9],” as one President put it. He set the tone for what the American presidency should be. That’s why he was “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
Julia Shaw is a research associate and program manager in Heritage’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
But George Washington was not simply a President. He was the indispensible man of the American Founding [1]. Washington’s words, thoughts, and deeds as a military commander, a President, and a patriotic leader make him arguably the greatest statesman in our history.
All Presidents can learn from Washington’s leadership in foreign policy, in upholding the rule of law, and—especially now—in the importance of religion and religious liberty. While the Obama Administration claims to be “accommodating” Americans’ religious freedom concerns regarding the Health and Human Services (HHS) Obamacare mandate, it is actually trampling religious freedom. President Washington set a tremendous example for the way that Presidents should handle such conflicts.
Washington knew that religion and morality are essential [2] to creating the conditions for decent politics. “Where,” Washington asked, “is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?”
Religion and morality are, Washington wrote, essential to the happiness of mankind: “A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity.”
To match his high praise of religion, Washington had a robust understanding of religious liberty. Freedom allows religion, in the form of morality and through the teachings of religion, to exercise an unprecedented influence over private and public opinion. Religious liberty shapes mores, cultivates virtues, and provides an independent source of moral reasoning and authority. In his letter [3] to the Newport Hebrew congregation—at the time the largest community of Jewish families in America—President Washington grounded America’s religious and civil liberties in natural rights, and not mere toleration.Washington also confronted the limits of religious liberty. In one letter, Washington praised [4] the Quakers for being good citizens but chastised their pacifism: “Your principles and conduct are well known to me; and it is doing the people called Quakers no more than justice to say, that (except their declining to share with others the burden of the common defense) there is no denomination among us, who are more exemplary and useful citizens.” Yet Washington ended his letter assuring them of his “wish and desire that the laws may always be as extensively accommodated” to their practice.
Such a true accommodation upholds the rule of law and religious liberty, because it allows men and women of religious faith to follow the law and their faith. In his letter to the Quakers, Washington explained that government is instituted to “protect the persons and consciences of men from oppression.” Further, it was the duty of rulers “not only to abstain from [oppression] themselves, but, according to their stations, to prevent it in others.”
Washington’s advice has gone unheeded. We are told that religion and politics require a strict separation; that religion is a hindrance to happiness and therefore has been gradually stripped from the public square. We’re told that displays of religious faith don’t support the community but are downright offensive to non-adherents. The Supreme Court has supported and extenuated this tortured logic [5]. Since the 1940s, the Court has put religion and religious liberty into a smaller and smaller box. At best, religion is a private good [6]—but one that and should not be presented to others. And religious beliefs have no bearing on public life.
We can see where this logic goes [7]. Under Obamacare all insurance plans must cover, at no cost to the insured, abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives, sterilization, and patient education and counseling for women of reproductive age. Illustrating the Obama Administration’s narrow view of religion, only formal houses of worship are afforded an exemption from the coercive mandate. Many other religious employers such as Catholic hospitals, Christian schools, and faith-based pregnancy care centers are forced to provide and pay for coverage of services that, as a matter of faith, they find morally objectionable.
Even the recently proposed “accommodation” to the rule isn’t really an accommodation. As Sarah Torre explains [8], the suggested fix “fails to encompass many employers—and certainly all individuals—with moral or religious objections to complying with the mandate.” To comply with the mandate requires religious men and women to violate church doctrine and their consciences. Under President Obama, we have returned to religious toleration, as defined by a bureaucrat somewhere.
Maybe that’s why we shouldn’t celebrate all Presidents equally. George Washington “was the directing spirit without which there would have been no independence, no Union, no Constitution, and no Republic [9],” as one President put it. He set the tone for what the American presidency should be. That’s why he was “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
Julia Shaw is a research associate and program manager in Heritage’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org; URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/02/18/morning-bell-george-washingtons-example-on-religious-liberty/
URLs in this post:
[1] indispensible man of the American Founding: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/09/american-statesman-the-enduring-relevance-of-george-washington
[2] essential: http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles/primary-sources/washingtons-farewell-address
[3] letter: http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles/primary-sources/washington-s-letter-to-the-hebrew-congregation-of-newport-rhode-island
[4] praised: http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=393
[5] The Supreme Court has supported and extenuated this tortured logic: http://www.heritage.org/constitution#!/amendments/1/essays/139/free-exercise-of-religion
[6] religion is a private good: http://astore.amazon.com/heritagefoundationbookstore-20/detail/0891951318
[7] We can see where this logic goes: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/22/despotism-thy-name-is-obamacare/
[8] explains: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/02/01/hhs-mandate-another-offensive-update/
[9] was the directing spirit without which there would have been no independence, no Union, no Constitution, and no Republic: http://archive.org/stream/historyofgeorgew02geor#page/2/mode/2up
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