“The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious beliefs or worship.”
— James Madison
It’s been a very long time since I’ve been to church. Despite that fact, I consider myself to be a far better Christian than lots of people who never fail to take their place in the pews each week. In fact, it just might be that my long absence from Sunday services has helped make me a better Christian than lots of people who are in regular attendance at the mega churches and fundamentalist hoedowns. I learned the basic principles of the faith when I was a little boy, and those simple ideas haven’t been corrupted in my mind by the ministrations (and the frankly political agendas) of ministers who sometimes seem a little unclear on the concepts Jesus was promulgating while he was here. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Judge not, lest ye be judged. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. We are all God’s children. Peace and love. Those are among the basic ideas I was taught as a church-going child, and they’re the primary ideas that stuck in my mind, and at the center of my moral universe. That doesn’t mean I always practice those beliefs, or live up to those ideals, but I still believe in them.
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