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On Tacitly Established Religion By Dr. Bruce Prescott Late last year, The United Church of Christ (UCC) developed an nationwide ad campaign to show that all people (including homosexuals) are welcome at their churches. CBS and NBC refused to air their ads because, "the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the [CBS and UPN] networks." No matter what your position is on same sex unions, when TV Executives are screening the messages of mainline Christian denominations for conformity with White House initiatives, it is obvious that some form of government sanctioned religion is being tacitly "established." Frederick Clarkson, author of Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy, made the implications clear: There are 1.3 million members of the UCC and tens of millions more who are members of Christian denominations, and other religious traditions that will recognize that if CBS can turn down an ad because they are afraid the White House won't like it, the First Amendment protection of religious freedom is in jeopardy. The need to prohibit this kind of censorship of religious speech and expression is precisely why colonial Baptists in Virginia refused to ratify the U.S. Constitution until the First Amendment was added to it. In the early 1770’s all over Virginia, Baptist ministers were imprisoned for preaching doctrines that did not conform to the dictates of the established Anglican Church of Virginia. At that time, preaching that only believers should be baptized and that a citizen’s duty to the state differed from their responsibility to the church was considered subversive and treasonous. Today, too many will deny others the same freedoms that were denied us before the First Amendment was adopted. |
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Online since April 7, 1999
E- mail questions or comments about this web site to bprescott@mainstreambaptists.orgCopyright © 1999-2003 MAINSTREAM OKLAHOMA BAPTISTS P.O. Box 6371 Norman, OK 73070-6371 (405) 329-2266.
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