Letter to the Editor: Objectives
BY Randi Eldevik, Stillwater
Sunday, December 09, 2012
12/09/12 at 3:00 AM
In answer to a question in the Dec. 1 letter "What mindset?": I can easily think of some reasons why God would be displeased with a display of the Ten Commandments on an American courthouse lawn.
It's true what theologian C.S. Lewis said - people cannot be bullied into the Kingdom of Heaven. For public land (such as a courthouse lawn) to be used to tell people that they are forbidden to put any other Gods before Jehovah is bullying.
People who worship other gods and see the display will be disgusted with the bullying and the unfairness. I say unfairness because it is unfair for one religion, or even two religions (Judaism and Christianity) to use public land to promulgate rules that apply only to believers in those religions, and not to all American citizens. There are supposed to be constitutional guarantees preventing that kind of unfairness.
People will turn away in disgust from Judeo-Christian tradition, and the mission with which Jesus charged his followers - to go and make disciples - will suffer a setback. Those who erected the Ten Commandments display may be patting themselves on the back, but in heaven, God is grieving.
Display of the Ten Commandments on private property, outdoors in a prominent location where passers-by are able to see it, could get people thinking without provoking disgust. Disciples might thereby be made; God would be pleased. Aren't those the objectives?
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