July/August 2005

Some people think that it is perfectly proper and wise to have the state support and propagate religion, if it is a good religion. But we believe that if it is a good religion, it is capable of propagating itself and needs no support from the state. If it is a bad religion, all but its adherents will admit that the state should not propagate or support it. A religion that is not capable of propagating and supporting itself on its own merits, and that has to appeal to the state for help, is a bad religion. Some very loose thinking is being done by many good people upon this subject. Some people think that everything that is "good" and "pure" should be supported and propagated by the civil government, and everything that is not "good" and not "pure" should be legislated against by the state. They fail to draw any distinction between things which are "civil" or "secular" and things that are "religious" or "spiritual." As a consequence, their thinking is muddled and confused.

There is a surreal aspect to many of the events in our world of late. So many changes. So many alarms and threats. "The old order changeth," but what is to come?

Pictou, Nova Scotia, is "a charming seaside destination steeped in Scottish culture and history" on the Northumberland Strait-a convenient stop-off point for those taking the ferry to Prince Edward Island. It is a place where one can sit back and enjoy the traditional and maritime music as it wafts across the harbor from the marina's hospitality center. Its history dates back to the 1773 launch of the ship Hector from Lochbroom, Scotland, carrying some 200 brave souls seeking a better life in the New World.

Few emperors of Rome possessed the learning and refinement of Marcus Aurelius. Power and pomp meant little to him; his great passion was for justice. Serving without salary, he supported himself and a host of court retainers from his own abundant riches. In a sensual age, he was a Stoic, who practiced temperance, self-denial, and stern morality. Even those who found his abstemious way of life repellent revered him for his practical decency. Considerate toward the poor, he lowered their taxes and moderated their civil obligations, which had previously been oppressive. Deeming the brutality of gladiatorial exhibitions offensive, he ordered that they be given less frequently and with less bloodshed. Aurelius's literary gifts were exceptional, as revealed in his wise and pithy Meditations, not written for publication, but as a kind of political, philosophical diary of private reflections.

Benjamin Gitlow's 1925 day before the United States Supreme Court opened the door to vigorous legal disputes testing First Amendment religious liberty guarantees in all jurisdictions. Hardly a church-state activist, Gitlow, an avowed anarchist, unleashed inflammatory rhetoric that pushed the limits of free speech under New York state law.

The strict purpose of the establishment clause of the First Amendment was never to require a strict neutrality between religion and nonreligion. It was designed to prohibit Congress from establishing a national church, from designating a particular faith or sect above the rest. It was never intended to require a strict neutrality between religion and nonreligion.

KSKY Radio is an effective traffic-coping aid for Sunday-morning churchgoers in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area. One might absentmindedly flip it on en route to church and enjoy a little preworship sermon with Charles Stanley's In Touch or Adrian Rogers' Love Worth Finding.