Responding to a Prayer Request

My mom has voted consistently Republican since Nixon. She is a "values voter" and part of the "believers"  demographic that the R's so desperately need to win elections. The last eight years have seen us have more than one argument about the pinhead who occupies the White House, lies and the liars who lie them.In an effort to keep peace in the family I have sworn off discussing politics at family gatherings, but I regularly get emails from her that get me fired up. I responded to a "prayer request' last night and received a reply.

This is what I received,

"PRAYER REQUEST!!

Dr. John Tisdale  

Dear Friends,

As I was listening to a news program last night, I watched in horror as Barack Obama made the statement with pride. . ."we are no longer a Christian nation; we are now a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, . . .  As with so many other statements I've heard him (and his wife) make, I never thought I'd see the day that I'd hear something like that from a presidential candidate in this nation.  To think our forefathers fought and died for the right for our nation to be a Christian nation--and to have this man say with pride that we are no longer that.  How far this nation has come from what our founding fathers intended it to be.

I hope that each of you will do what I'm doing now--send your concerns, written simply and sincerely, to the Christians on your email list.  With God's help, and He is still in control of this nation and all else, we can show this man and the world in November that we are, indeed, still a Christian nation!

This was my reply

will be praying, but not how you think.
Some words from our Founding Fathers

James Madison, 1785
"Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments:"
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."

"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not."

Ben Franklin
"Toleration,"

"If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. These found it wrong in the Bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here [England] and in New England."

and the Costitution itself

Article VI, Section 3, ". . . no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom:

"Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination."

James Madison
"And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."

and then there is the Treaty of Tripoli, ratified in 1797
Article 11 states,

"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

Your side is going to lose this election. I am not afraid of Jews, Hindus, Muslims or anybody else.

and I got this in reply

"Hi Chip:

Cheryl sent your response to the prayer request since I had told her every e-mail I've received that had the name of Obama in it was a lie.  I appreciate what you had to say.

Nancy"

Point of clarification: Cheryl is my mom. Nancy is her sister-in-law. Her son is married to my sister. They are part of the email posse. Ain't the internet great? My tiny bit of activity got sent out like a damn virus and smacked back at the lies.

This tells me a couple of things;  responding to idiotic emails is not a bad idea because someone might actually listen to what you have to say and people still think for themselves.