A little on faith. You would never know it from what, how I write, but take my word for it, I am a man of faith. Now, I may be a man of exhausted faith, as I am tired of a lot of shit in my life, but I have faith nonetheless. Inasmuch as I was raised as anything, I was raised as a Baptist and was baptized in that Church. Now, I fell out of love with that denomination while in college and shopped around until I discovered the Episcopal Church, which recognized my baptism in the Baptist church and “confirmed” me in 1997 after I had gone through the confirmation classes (which Catholics would recognize as catechism class). I am a big fan of the liturgy of the Episcopal / Anglican, Lutheran and Catholic Churches……it gives me comfort and a base in which to anchor my faith. I am NOT a big fan of Baptist arrogance and pomposity. But, I don’t care if you are. If you are a Baptist, or any other denomination than my own, and you are comfortable in that church, I say have at it, knock yourself out…I will support you, defend you, and defend your right to worship as you chose….I am just one of those friend of the people kind of guys. So, when the national park service levied a fee for baptism in the water ways of national parks……I think that the government has once again slipped off of the leash. And I am not a big fan of “gathering at the river”, not that there is anything wrong with it, Christ was baptized in the river, there is a long history of various Jewish sects being baptized in rivers…..I just am not a big fan. To me the baptism is a personal, spiritual thing between an individual and God, and I am a little too self effacing to want to go to the river and do it. But again, I don’t care if you feel otherwise, and I will gladly protect your right to do so. Check it out. foxnews/opinion/2013/08/30/btodd-american-dispatchb-feds-forced-churches-to-get-baptism-permits/ Now, I go, my kids go on float trips down Missouri rivers yearly. Often we are in groups of two, three dozen family members; no permit required. I have a cousin who is damned near a professional fisherman in Missouri…..for the mere cost of a fishing license that any fisherman would need. So what is the public interest in charging a fee and requiring a permit to be baptized in public waters? What is the Church harming by doing public baptisms?” Again, not my taste, but why charge the Church for doing baptisms? What is it that the federal government doesn’t understand about the first amendment, that whole “freedom of religion” thingie and the provision that the federal government will make no laws infringing on the same? What is it? Better yet, or moreover, what sort of people are we putting in charge of these administrative behemoths, that don’t understand these basic rights and truisms? As for the reality that we continue to persecute Christians in this nation while we cater to Muslims……well, the truth is what the truth is, and I know anti-American liberals have a difficult time acknowledging that….but it is a reality. We are marching against Christianity as it challenges the supremacy of the statists. Thankfully the government backed off on this one, very narrow issue. But don’t fool yourself. The government WILL re-attack. Anybody got a prayer rug?
Posted on: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 08:43:06 +0000
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