Well, let's see how this goes over with the professor...

I'm currently in my second online class, SOC 402: Contemporary Social Problems & The Workplace.

Our assignment for week one: "Summarize your views on how a specific contemporary social problem is having an impact on your workplace or on workplaces known to you. Identify the problem, and describe what you see as the causes, impacts, and possible solutions to the problem. Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ postings."

Second post on the discussion board? This:

As I ponder what to write I ask myself is this really a social problem or personal. As I ponder this I come to the conclusion that this is a social problem. To start with I will make this statement. Our nation is founded upon the beliefs in God, more specifically Jesus Christ and the values that are built within these beliefs. For decades it was normal for everyone to go to church. You would be scrutinized if you missed too many times. Also divorce was nearly unheard of. Sex was in the confines of a marriage period. Of course there have always been and always will have people that seek sex outside the marriage, either premarital sex or extramarital sex. Being a pastor was considered a high calling in life and pastors were held with a certain amount of respect.

The problems that we face begin with our nation losing site of God. A Christian can no longer stand up for their belief without being called a bigot or racists. A Christian speaking out against homosexuality is becoming a hate crime. As a Christian I cannot protest against abortion. I cannot bring Christ into a school with me but you can talk about evolution and other religions all you want.

Our constitution has statements that guaranty certain rights. Our Bill of Rights Amendment I states:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. (para, 10)

I do not condone forcing any religion on any one person. However, it is against the Bill of Rights to prohibit me, or any other Christian, from speaking out about our faith and beliefs in what is clearly right and wrong. When society imposes a certain set of beliefs on its citizens you begin to have break downs.

Refernces

The Charters Of Freedom, (para, 10) Retrieved July 1, 2009, from
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html

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Thank you and I hope I didn’t offend anyone:

God Bless,

Well, here is my response:

Allow me to point out the fallacies in your argument:

Fallacy of Authority:

You state "Our nation is founded upon the beliefs in God, more specifically Jesus Christ and the values that are built within these beliefs."

The primary leaders of the founding fathers were not what you would call Christians, they were Deists. Jefferson, in his day, was considered an infidel by the clergy. Jefferson wrote his own version of the gospel, which eliminated all miracles attributed to Jesus and ended with his burial - it contained no resurrection. (You may purchase it at Amazon here if you'd like to read it: http://tinyurl.com/mvn2n9) His letter to Adams on April 11, 1823 is very instructive (you may read the full text here:http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/jefferson_adams.html), here is one statement from it: "And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

Other founding fathers are discussed on this webpage, which does cite some sources of quotes for your further examination: http://tinyurl.com/ammte


You state "For decades it was normal for everyone to go to church. You would be scrutinized if you missed too many times."

I am unsure what decades you are talking about. As your preceding sentence was about the founding of our country, here is some information about church-going during that period of time:
"Not only were a good many of the revolutionary leaders more deist than Christian, but the actual number of church members was rather small. Perhaps as few as five percent of the populace were church members in 1776" (Schools They Haven't Got a Prayer, Elgin, Illinois David C. Cook Publishing, 1982, p. 81)
and:
"perhaps as many as ninety percent of the Americans were unchurched in 1790"
"mid-eighteenth century America had a smaller proportion of church members than any other nation in Christendom,"
"in 1800 [only] about one of every fifteen Americans was a church member"
(Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, New York Alfred A. Knopf, 1974, p. 82, 89)

There have been more recent decades where going to church was much more common, of course. However, if your point is that it was a cultural thing that we used to do but don't do anymore, which is bad, I can point out a myriad of cultural things that we used to do that we don't do anymore (or at least don't tolerate as "normal"), thank god: slavery, child abuse, wife abuse, lynching... just because the majority at one point did something, does not make that something good, please keep in mind. For example, a recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that the more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support torture of suspected terrorists. (the CNN article about it is here:http://tinyurl.com/ch54u3) That doesn't sound like a particularly good correlation, you know?


You state: "Also divorce was nearly unheard of."
In the colonies, divorce was expressly forbidden by England. "Once America gained its independence, the petitions for divorce greatly increased" In South Carolina, for example, divorce was only legal briefly from 1868 to 1895, and then wasn't legal again until 1949.

In fact, marriage wasn't even religious in some places! "Early New England regulations ordered that civil magistrates perform all marriages (instead of ministers), because they adopted the Protestant belief that marriage was a civil contract, not a sacrament."

Both above quotes from:
A history of divorce and remarriage in the United States. Claudia W. Strow, Brian K. Strow. Humanomics. Patrington: 2006. Vol. 22, Iss. 4; pg. 239 (There's some interesting stuff in there, it's available on ProQuest if you'd like to read it.)

I won't deny that the amount of divorce has gone up through the centuries, but I think attributing it to society "losing sight" of God is too simplistic by far.



And for the one response I saw before I started writing this, wherein the statement "I don't understand taking the god off the coins and the pledge of allegiance out of school", here is some information for you:
"under God," did not appear in the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954, when Congress put them in.
"In God We Trust" wasn't on paper currency prior to 1956. It had appeared on coins off and on, along with phrases like "Mind Your Business." The original U.S. motto is E Pluribus Unum ("Of Many, One") - which is not religious. The motto was changed in 1956 by Congress & approved by Eisenhower making "In God We Trust" the official motto. So the history of these two things are relatively short overall.



Fallacy of Dramatic Instance:

You state "A Christian speaking out against homosexuality is becoming a hate crime."

I assume you are referring to the amendment to include sexual orientation in the list of protected people under the very limited hate crime law of 1969.

The 1969 law covered crimes motivated by race, color, national origin, and religion (so Christians are protected, please note) but only applies if the victim is engaged in one of six federally protected activities (like voting, interstate commerce, etc.), and then only if the perpetrator is found guilty of the crime and it can be shown that the crime was motivated by a hatred of the victim's race, color, religion, ethnicity, or national origin.

The proposed law extends coverage to gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity, and disability.

Now, there is legitimate differences of opinion on whether there should even be a hate crime law, but as the law stands right now, only some people are protected by the hate crime law, and some are not - which is not in keeping with the American tradition of equal treatment. (Or at least the intention of America to treat people equally; our practice has had its faults.)

The other misconception is that by speaking out against homosexuality you could be judged guilty of committing a hate crime. The hate crime bill ONLY APPLIES IN THOSE CASES INVOLVING A CRIME OF VIOLENCE. Your speech IS protected by the First Amendment; you can say whatever you like. The only possible way I can see your speech could get you into trouble in regards to this hate crime law (keeping in mind I'm not a lawyer) is if you do the equivalent of yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre: if you stand up in front of a group of people, and start yelling about how God hates homosexuals, and they should all be eradicated from the earth, and then one of the people listening to you goes off and starts eradicating homosexuals from the earth, there might be some possibility that you could be held at least partially legally liable. (In my view, you would certainly be morally partially liable.)

For further reading and information about the hate crime laws, this website has some good information, with sources cited: http://tinyurl.com/mlfuf7


You state "As a Christian I cannot protest against abortion." - I have no idea where this idea came from. Protests are protected speech, like any other speech. I'm not crazy about the more recent "Free Speech Zones" but even those allow protest, they just allow the government to control time/place/manner.


You state: "I cannot bring Christ into a school with me but you can talk about evolution and other religions all you want."

Well, if the class is a class about religion, i.e. 'comparative religions' or 'religions of the world' or even 'Christian Tradition' and 'Gospel of Matthew' (those last three are classes taught at my local university) - then sure, bring as much information about Christ and your beliefs as you want.

Evolution is a scientific theory. Scientific theories do not address the existence of God; it is a completely different sphere. Complaining that you cannot bring Christ into a science class is like complaining that you can't dissect a pig in your english class. They have nothing to do with each other. You are welcome to believe whatever you like about how the universe was created.



Finally, you state that you do not condone forcing any religion on any one person. I agree. How offensive would it be to you if before every football game at your local college stadium, I stood up and praised Brahma, Visnu and Shiva for giving us this glorious day to play sports together? How would you feel if every day at school you, as a Christian, had to stand up and say "... one nation, under Satan, indivisible..." before class started? How would you feel if on the coins of the United States it said "In Yu-huang We Trust"? Because there are Hindus, and Satanists, and Taoists in the United States, and they are just as much citizens as you are.

Just so you know, I am not offended.

So, what do you think?


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His response:

Ceara, thank you for your response, but I will state as a fact our nation was indeed founded upon God. Here are some links to further support my statements.

http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/was-united-states-founded-as-non-religious-nation.html

Was America organized and founded as a strictly secular (non-religious) nation? Not according to each state's constitution! All 50 states in the United States acknowledge God in their constitutions:

Alabama 1901, Preamble. We the people of the State of Alabama ... invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution ...

Alaska 1956, Preamble. We, the people of Alaska, grateful to God and to those who founded our nation and pioneered this great land ...

Arizona 1911, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Arizona, grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution ...

Arkansas 1874, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Arkansas, grateful to Almighty God for the privilege of choosing our own form of government ...

California 1879, Preamble. We, the People of the State of California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom ...

Colorado 1876, Preamble. We, the people of Colorado, with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of Universe ...

Connecticut 1818, Preamble. The People of Connecticut, acknowledging with gratitude the good Providence of God in permitting them to enjoy ...

Delaware 1897, Preamble. Through Divine Goodness all men have, by nature, the rights of worshipping and serving their Creator according to the dictates of their consciences ...

Florida 1885, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Florida, grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional liberty ... establish this Constitution ...

Georgia 1777, Preamble. We, the people of Georgia, relying upon protection and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this Constitution ...

http://www.afn.org/~govern/Christian_Nation.html

Recently, many authors have debated whether or not the United States of America was founded as a Christian nation. I wish to provide a few historical quotes from our Founding Era that lend credence to the supposition that we indeed were founded as a Christian nation.

Granted, God is not mentioned in the Constitution, but He is mentioned in every major document leading up to the final wording of the Constitution. For example, Connecticut is still known as the "Constitution State" because its colonial constitution was used as a model for the United States Constitution. Its first words were: "For as much as it has pleased the almighty God by the wise disposition of His Divine Providence…"

Most of the fifty-five Founding Fathers who worked on the Constitution were members of orthodox Christian churches and many were even evangelical Christians. The first official act in the First Continental Congress was to open in Christian prayer, which ended in these words: "...the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Savior. Amen". Sounds Christian to me.

Ben Franklin, at the Constitutional Convention, said: "...God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

John Adams stated so eloquently during this period of time that; "The general principles on which the fathers achieved Independence were ... the general principles of Christianity ... I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that the general principles of Christianity are as etemal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God."

I will concede there is just as much information stating that our nation was not founded upon God. Maybe a better term is that our forefathers and a strong majority were Christians.

As for divorce rates, It has increased dramatically since the mid 1900’s. Prior to that time it was not acceptable to get a divorce in societies eyes, why, because of the majority’s faith in God. The Scriptures teach us that it is not favorable to divorce.

When I went to School I was allowed to bring my Bible with me to class and leave it sitting on my desk. When I had free time I could read it. Today I would be expelled from school should I even bring it through the doors.

About your comment on prayers, do you watch NASCAR? Also why does congress open with prayer? If we are not founded upon God why does our government begin just about everything it does with prayer, or at least use to? As with everything discussed we both could go on and on but I do not see a need to continue.

All men, people, are created equal. So why do we have minorities? You stated I have listed fallacies in my post. We are all free to have our opinions and it is my opinion that these are not fallacies but a true statement of our society today. As a Christian I am discriminated against.

Thank you for your thoughts, comments, and opinions.

God Bless,

And his response to the other commenter:

Maria, thank you for your reply, I agree with what you said. Ceara commented on the pledge of Allegiance and about “In God We Trust.” She is right about when they were entered. My reply is that at one point it was added. The question is why, which no one wants to ask. The answer is simple; we are a nation that was founded upon God. Most people in our nation, at one time anyway, are or were Christians. We placed such an importance in God that we included him in all we did. Now that people are falling away they do not want to be reminded of our foundations…

God Bless,


So, not surprising. I must confess it irritated me, however.