Friday, June 30, 2017

Michael Tate Reed VS The Ten Commandments

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This week we learned that just hours after a monument of the Ten Commandments was installed on the state capitol grounds in Arkansas, it was rammed with a car and destroyed.

Michael Tate Reed was booked and charged with "defacing public property," "criminal trespass," and "first-degree criminal mischief."

This same man, in 2014, destroyed a Ten Commandments monument in Oklahoma, with the same results.

Why is Michael Tate Reed so intent on destroying the Ten Commandments?


While not necessarily agreeing with the method, the ACLU agrees with Reed's result.

Before the destruction of the monument, the ACLU vowed to file a lawsuit to get the display removed.

They said, "At a time when we do not need any more religious conflict and divisiveness in the world and in this country, it violates the First Amendment promise of religious liberty to all."

The ACLU's call for "world peace" was, of course, an implicit attempt to put all the world's problems on the back of religion---and Judeo-Christianity is no different than all the other religions that are causing all the problems---including Islamic terrorism.

And the ACLU said, "By placing a monument to a particular set of religious beliefs, it appears that the state enforces one particular set of beliefs over others and over no religion. And it makes people who fall into those categories---no religion or other religion---feel like second class citizens in the state of Arkansas, which they are not."

The monument followed the passage of a 2015 bill titled, "The Ten Commandments Monument Display Act," which, of course, allowed it to be displayed.

The bill instructed the Secretary of State to arrange for the monument to be designed, constructed and placed on the state Capitol grounds by private entities at no expense to the state.

The bill also defined why it was to be placed on the Capitol grounds. "The placing of a monument to the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Arkansas state Capitol would help the people of the United States and the State of Arkansas to know the Ten Commandments as the moral foundation of the law."

Well, that's true, it is the moral foundation from which our legal system and laws are based.

So why is Reed running around the country trying to destroy these Ten Commandment monuments?

On his Facebook page, Reed posted a video of himself driving into the Ten Commandments display shouting, "Freedom!"---just as his car made impact.

Does he really believe that is the path to freedom?

We know a lot more about the ACLU than we do about Reed, and we know that the ACLU does apparently believe that the removal of the Commandments somehow leads to First Amendment freedom and liberty, because they say it does. And they say it often.

And apparently, Mr. Reed agrees with them.

Freedom, in the mind of the ACLU, is defined by achieving "freedom from religion" rather than "freedom because of or through religion," which in the case of America, is Christianity.

Rita Sklar, the ACLU state executive director, confirms this. She says, "The monument suggests that the Commandments are the basis for American and Arkansas law even though several of the commandments are wholly religious in nature, like 'having no other gods before me' or 'keeping the Sabbath'. Those have no purpose in US or Arkansas law."

Sklar believes there is something more behind placing these monuments on state grounds.

She believes those legislators and others intend to assert "that Christianity in part has some special place in American tradition, has a higher place, has a more important role."

Apparently, Michael Tate Reed agrees---he just has a different way of expressing that conviction.

You have to wonder how Rita got this far in life not knowing Christianity had more than a little to do with the founding of America.

Our Founders were not timid in expressing just how "special" Christianity was in the creation of this country.

Founding Father John Adams said:
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 those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.
Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company: I mean hell.
The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.
David Barton has created a significant list of verified similar statements about the link between Christianity and our country--- made by the men who founded America.

I think Rita knows that relationship, but like Mr. Reed, she thinks if she smashes enough monuments, somehow this whole notion of Christianity being linked to America will go away in the back of a dump truck.

The Arkansas State Legislature will see to it that the monument is replaced.

I sincerely hope and pray that the 80 million Americans who read the Bible every week, and believe it is accurate, will be diligent and vigilant in helping to strengthen, rebuild and replace the moral and cultural foundations of this country by being the salt and light the Bible calls to be.

The 4th of July is a great time to think about how we can make a difference.

Be Free.