Re-posted today at BarbWire.com:
My list of recommended “must-read” books just got longer. Add “Back Fired: A nation founded for religious tolerance no longer tolerates the religion of its founders” by William J. Federer.
In the introduction of the book Federer begins by listing several examples of how the ACLU has worked to remove references to God from the public square. Here’s just the opening paragraph:
Afraid of expensive ACLU lawsuits, Los Angeles removed the cross off its city seal, even though the city was founded as a Spanish Mission; a San Francisco teacher was not allowed to show students the Declaration of Independence because it mentioned the “Creator”; a Senior Center in Balch Springs, Texas, told seniors they could no longer pray over their meals; a school in Plano, Texas, changed its “Christmas” party to “winter” and told parents not to bring red and green paper plates because it might remind the children of Christmas.
Most of us are used to this kind of ridiculousness coming from supposedly intelligent people, since idiotic things like this have been taking place for decades. Today, obviously, things are getting worse. Violations of the First Amendment’s protection of our God-given religious liberties are commonplace.
While the recent HHS mandate from the Obama Administration set off alarm bells for many Christians, the fact is the advance of the homosexual agenda has been trampling all over religious liberty for many years.
Back to Federer’s introduction:
While I was interviewed by a radio station in Madison, Wisconsin, the host remarked that he thought Christians were intolerant.
I commented that his view was interesting, given that it was the Judeo-Christian beliefs of America’s founders that gave birth to the modern concept of tolerance.
That last sentence hits the most important point of Federer’s book. And I love it that that fact will drive liberals absolutely crazy.
Federer continued with the story:
Though hesitating, he agreed that tolerance did not originate in Saudi Arabia, where it is still the death penalty if one converts from Islam to another faith.
Nor did it originate in India’s caste-system, where the lowest caste was considered “untouchable”; nor from the former atheistic Soviet Union, where for seventy years thousands were persecuted for their faith; nor from atheistic Communist China, where illegal house church leaders and Falun Gong members are still arrested.
Nor did tolerance originate with Robespierre’s Reign of Terror, where thousands accused of not supporting the bloody atheistic French Revolution lost their heads in the guillotine.
Can you just see the lefties squirming as they read that?
Federer concludes his introduction:
Tolerance. What is its origin? How did it evolve? What has it become? This book uncovers the answers.
Up next: More about the book “Back Fired.”
(First published May 2012)
