Yes...yes it's a rant.

I’ve always been a bit afraid of blogging or discussion forums online, because I never wanted to become the one who is always complaining. Countless blogs describing every minute detail that is wrong with anything, and never resting until every opinion has been voiced. I don’t believe it accomplishes anything, and ultimately people are willing to say nearly anything online. What is worst of all is when these posts hold nothing more than a volley of low blows against whomever or whatever they have a problem with. There is no class at all in doing this, and overall it just bugs me to no end. It isn’t that people are speaking about that which concerns them; rather it is the less-than-adult way that most seem to go about it.

Is this arrogant? I hope not… I would call it more of an observation.

With that being said, there certainly is a place for voicing frustrations and issues in a constructive way. And I suppose that’s what I’m about to attempt to do. But hopefully, I won’t beat it into the ground either…

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has brought about the suspension (and most likely cancellation) of a class that was being taught in the Air Force that was designed to aid Missile launch officers in their ethical understanding of how a war can be, in certain circumstances, moral. This is a class that has been offered for the past 20 years according to the article, which you can read here.  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/03/air-forces-suspends-christian-themed-ethics-training-program-over-bible/

The main complaint cited as to why this class was no longer acceptable, is that it used passages from the OT and the NT to reinforce its lesson plans. MRFF stated that this is clearly a violation of the Separation of Church and State, and that the Air Force should remove this class immediately. The same day that the complaint was filed, the AF placed the class on suspension pending their own investigation.

Sigh… I am not surprised that the world fights back against the God in whom I believe, and I am not going to turn this into a flying rant of how this is just another example of our nationalphobia, (The fear of offending anyone except Christians, who are required by national pressure to accept it and deal).  What bothers me about this the most comes in a few different points.

1^st, I am blatantly irritated with the misuse of the Separation of Church and State argument.  SOCAS was designed to protect the church from the state, not the other way around, and if I remember correctly, this actual concept is not found in our Constitution, but in letters penned by Jefferson later on in America’s history. It was early America’s attempted failsafe to avoid doing what England had done to them. Quite plainly, it was to allow a free pursuit of God with no interruption from the government, excluding the breaking of laws. Still, even if the argument is that the concept works both ways and the church should not be involved with matters of the state and country, than this group has a long ways to go before their purge is complete.  This is nitpicking at its best and ultimately it returns to the concept of “we cannot offend a minority who disagree with this particular event”.

2^nd, There is a line in the articles that states “The Air Force and Weinstein denied that political correctness had anything to do with the suspension of the class”.

Right. Of course it didn’t. There isn't anything in this whole issue that is politically correct. 

3^rd, David Smith is ultimately pushing for an ethical and moral military completely void of religious influence. He states that it’s best for people to keep their faiths to themselves, and not be put in an environment where something else could be impressed upon them. (I am paraphrasing; again, the article link is above for you).  Here are the problems that exist with this hope and expectation: Mankind is incapable of creating or designating his own ethical laws that are to be followed by all.

Why?

Let’s remove God out of the equation and see what happens. There are several reasons.  A. There are 6 + Billon of us and more being added every day, and each one possesses a different perspective on what is good and evil, right and wrong. If we as American’s value each human life as equal as we say we do, than one man or woman has no more or less right to designate what is right and wrong than does another. We are all on the same field, and therefore we cannot set a true overarching compass of morality and ethical behavior. If one would disagree, it would be completely within his rights as a human to do so, and no one could say anything against him. Supposed natural laws that “everyone agrees with” such as "Murder is a crime" would have no water to stand on. If I choose that murder is right, you have no right or reason to debate me.

AH! But what about our internal moral belief that such an action is wrong? Yes, there’s an interesting question. The problem with that is that you have to ask yourself where it came from. WHY do I believe that this is wrong? If I came up with this concept by myself, than we’re back to the argument of all men being equal, and it therefore cannot be applied to "The Common Good" or an assumed Humanity-wide morality for the reason that it is only my opinion. but if it came from somewhere else, than we are obligated to find out where. And this leads us on a pursuit of something greater than man. Something that has the power to instill morality inside of us, and the authority to designate that which is right and wrong, which man cannot dispute or change.

B. Therefore, because of this, if we are to remove all Godly, or I will even say religious influence from our world in preference of our own ethical and moral system, we are DOOMED to either unprecedented ignorance, hypocrisy, and abuse of power, or utter anarchy within the world.  Because man CANNOT make these choices on his own even if he believes other wise, we are doomed to failure.

C. And if these are the paths we have to take by removing God from our ethical and moral system, ethics and morals become obsolete and pointless. Think of it, No one can truly decide what is moral and impress it upon someone else. Scarily enough, it is through ethics and morals that we decide that it is good to be good to others, and to help friends, care for the poor, be concerned for the elderly, to think of others before we think of ourselves! But without God in our world indicating that these things are good, we have no reason to care about anyone or anything that is alive. In fact, those who would do good to another would be a fool, because he is sqandering his life on pointless kindness that does not yield him any benefit. Without God the only thing we can rely on is ourselves and what we want. No one else’s input can or HAS to matter, it is a system built entirely on our own thoughts and feelings.

 Therefore, we become a people who are completely narcissistic, egotistical and self centered. There is no good reason to say that it is good to care for the poor because ultimately, “what have they done for me?” Instead, we should become solely concerned about self enjoyment in this life. Our obsession should be with our own selves and the pleasures of life that we desire. But what about “the common good?” The only question to ask after that is “Where did the common good come from?” Once we answer the second question, then, and only then, can we answer the first.

It is my firm belief that if people would look beyond their immediate decisions of what should be ethical and moral in our country and world, than they would begin to see an undeniable path that leads its way to God Himself, for He is the fountain of Goodness, and the only one who has ever possessed the authority to designate what is Good and Evil.

The bottom line? We need God to be ethically and morally sound. Without Him, we are hopelessly lost.

I’m sure that there is more that could be said about this, but it comes down to this bottom line: pray for our nation, not so that we can “go back” to how it was, but that we can shape how it will be. Pray that we will all start thinking again, instead of just “feeling” what we think is right. We were given both a heart and a brain, and we need to use both, not just one or the other.

God bless,

Darrell