People

Have you all, especially the ones of you who lament the "removal of God" from schools, considered that the "reason" that only wealthy, white males were afforded educational opportunity in the Colonies was that this "rule" was common to almost all of the existing religious paradigms? Typically, only men were allowed to speak in church. The women were forced to maintain reverential silence -- both to God and their men. Corporal punishment was an acceptable form of correcting the unruly wenches. Women, and persons of color, were not allowed to own businesses or property. It was understood that Scripture taught a complete submission of woman to man, and that "colored" people bore their coloring as a "mark from God" which signified sinful imperfection. Initially, due primarily to Scriptural justification, the voice of the vote was only granted to the wealthy and educated (property owning) white men. Why educate anyone else? Who else, but these proper white men, had any right to participate in the making of such weighty decisions? For all of recorded history [and even before that, I suspect], pretended revelation (false claims of direct reception of "truth" from God) and spiritual/religious myth have served as coercive tools of conquest, domination, and deception. Whole peoples and nations have been eradicated "in the name of God." In more recent history, American Indians became victims of wholesale slaughter – largely due to the "truth" of their "barbaric nature." They were determined to be incorrigible, corrupted "heathens," worthy only of death. What was their "crime?" They were people of another color, who wore odd or little clothing, spoke in strange tongues, had different traditions, and, oh, coincidentally they were hindering the conquest of a vast and resourceful land that the "holy" white men wanted to occupy – with the full support of Providence. Enslavement of African Negroes in the Colonies and the United States was deemed "right in the sight of God." These "animals," to whom we now refer as citizens, were bought and sold and treated as mere chattel -- of little more use, value, or purpose than a horse or a donkey. "God said" that all of this was just fine. Of what were the Negroes guilty? They were people of another color, who wore odd or little clothing, spoke in strange tongues, had different traditions, and, oh, coincidentally they were quite helpful to their owners in the taming and exploitation of a vast and resourceful land that the "holy" white men now occupied. According to the en vogue religious teachings of the times, these non-people got exactly what they deserved. It is common to look to other systems of religion as examples of incorrect (ungodly) understanding while ignoring the inconsistencies of one's own. A glaring example of this is the

current conflict between the so-called Christian World and Islam. Muslims have codified their "reality": Me… Me against my brother... My brother and me against our cousins... Our cousins, my brother and me against the world. How about this one? Me… Me against my Methodist brother... My Methodist brother and me against the Catholics... The Catholics, my Methodist brother and me against the Muslims. Or, you can make up your own. You get the point. Everyone -- of every persuasion -- needs to pray. Perhaps there is a grain of true revelation in one or more of the systems of religious practice, and the True God, who has rendered true revelation, will hear their prayers and heal their hearts and lands. I vehemently reassert: IF Almighty God is "in" anything, He will NOT be removed. Who among us is able to undo that which God has done? Creation cannot overcome its Creator. If I am accused of heresy, the irrational accusation arises from insecurities, doubts, and misguided perceptions. A quite famous Jewish heretic prophet admonished his followers to not worry about the splinter in another person's eye until they removed the log from their own. Perhaps we could all benefit from the application of such wisdom in our "educational" views? In the meantime, rest assured...God has not gone anywhere.