Freedom Friday

I received this as an email the other day, and it was so touching that I wanted to share it with you. I don't remember hearing this story on the news.

A chaplain, who happened to be assigned to the Pentagon, told of an incident that happened right after Flight 77 hit the Pentagon on 9/11.

    A daycare facility inside the Pentagon had many children, including infants who were in heavy cribs. The daycare supervisor, looking at all the children they needed to evacuate, was in a panic over what they could do. There were many children, mostly toddlers, as well as the infants that would need to be taken out with the cribs. There was no time to try to bundle them into carriers and strollers.

    Just then a young Marine came running into the center and asked what they needed. After hearing what the center director was trying to do, he ran back out into the hallway and disappeared. The director thought, "Well, here we are, on our own."

    About 2 minutes later, that Marine returned with 40 other Marines in tow.  Each of them grabbed a crib with a child, and the rest started gathering up toddlers. The director and her staff then helped them take all the children out of the center and down toward the park near the Potomac and the Pentagon.
  
     Once they got about 3/4 of a mile outside the building, the Marines stopped in the park, and then did a fabulous thing- they formed a circle with the cribs, which were quite sturdy and heavy, like the covered wagons in the Old West. Inside this circle of cribs, they put the toddlers, to keep them from wandering off.

    Outside this circle were the 40 Marines, forming a perimeter around the children and waiting for instructions. There they remained until the parents could be notified and come get their children.The chaplain then said, "I don't think any of us saw nor heard of this on any of the news stories of the day. It was an incredible story of our men there. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. The thought of those Marines and what they did and how fast they reacted; could we expect any less from them? It was one of the most touching stories from the Pentagon.
 

Remember Ronald Reagan's great compliment: "Most of us wonder if our lives make any difference.   Marines don't have that problem." 
 

God Bless the USA, our troops, and you.  

        It's the Military, not the politicians that ensures our right to life,liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It's the Military who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag. 

       If you care to offer the smallest token of recognition and appreciation for the military, please pass this on and pray for our men and women, who have served and are currently serving our country, and pray for the family of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

Until next time,

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Freedom Friday

Welcome to the first edition of Freedom Friday. Hopefully, it won't be the last, but, we'll see how organized (ROFL) I can be. This is my feeble attempt to blog about the two most important issues in our lives: religion and politics.

Last night, Hubby and I couldn't bring ourselves to listen to another rendition of the "hope and change" rhetoric, and while channel surfing, found ourselves watching something called "Intelligence Squared" on PBS. Apparently, they raise a question then have both sides debate it. The audience answers the question before the debate, then after the debate, and the winner is determined by the percentage of changed votes. Last night's question was, would the world be better without religion? Not surprisingly, those who answered "yes" won the debate. It's PBS after all, and it was easy to tell by the questions which way the audience was slanted.

I don't remember the names of the highly intelligent humanists, but, D'nesh D'susa (my apologies because I'm sure I have misspelled his name) and a rabbi (whose name I also can't recall) were on the "no" side. If I had known I was going to blog about this, I would have written down their names and taken better notes, but I've just been thinking about it all morning. We started watching the show in mid-point so I don't know all the arguments that were made.

To sum up the Humanist viewpoint (which I would hasten to also call a religion), all religions have just made a mess of the world. Religion is for the weak-minded, their lives are in as much of a mess as non-religious people. In his closing remarks, he actually said, "We all just need to do unto others as we would have others do unto you." 

Did he really just quote the Bible? Oh, yes he did. But, the world  would be better without religion, I thought. So, how can he quote something which he obviously despises?

So, let's just take religion out of the world. There's no more Bible, no more Koran, no Book of Mormon, no book of anything that spouts religion. How do we know how to treat each other? We have no Ten Commandments to tell us how we should live. Humanists think people will just automatically go about doing good things because that is our nature. Children have to be taught how to hate, don'tcha know. Children are born loving others, unselfish, sweet little humans, and they only become hateful because of their religious upbringing, which is divisive. When they are hungry, they unselfishly wait patiently until their mothers have time to fix them some food. What child has been told to stop sharing so much? There has only been one child who was born that was totally unselfish, and that was Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. Opps, I forgot. No religion.

The fact is, that we can't imagine a world without religion, because whether humanists/atheists want to admit it or not, religion has and does make the world better. If there was no religion, why should we treat others as we want to be treated? What would be the point? Because we want to be a good person? How would we even know what "good" is without religion? If we are our own god, then, good would be what I determine it to be, and may not necessarily be what you would determine it to be. If there was no religion, the world would be in total chaos. How many hospitals have been built in the name of religion? How many schools and universities have been founded because of religion? How much art and music has been inspired because of religion? 

Yes, I know that wars have also been fought in the name of religion. There have been some horrible things done in the name of religion, but that doesn't mean religion should be erased from our existence. Do humanists/atheists believe there would be no wars if there was no religion? That there would just be peace and love as each "god" lived their own lives, not bothering any of the other "gods", doing good "just because"?

Humanists can't comprehend a loving God, who created us, and in spite of our sinful nature, wants to have fellowship with us. A God who is so holy, that he required a perfect and atoning offering, so that we could be forgiven of our sins, and have perfect fellowship with Him.

People are not perfect with religion in existence. How could they possibly be perfect without religion? But, then again, who would determine "perfect"? The Ten Commandments were given to teach the people how to live. Without the law of "thou shalt not kill", how would we know not to kill? Without the law "thou shalt not commit adultery", what would keep us from committing adultery?  

At the end of the debate, which side do you think made the first move towards good conduct? While the "enlightened" humanists were relishing in their victory, congratulating themselves, the Christian and the Jew walked over to congratulate them.

And so, I must disagree with the 59% of the audience that said the world would be a better place without religion. I would not want to live in a world where religion did not exist. 

Until next time,

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