Editor,
Reacting to complaints, Eureka Springs Mayor Butch Barry recently canceled the traditional Nativity display
in Basin Springs Park. After a firestorm of protest in support of the Nativity scene, he graciously relented.
To those who objected to the display, I would like to point out that for America, Christianity is not just a religion. It is the foundation of the moral beliefs and traditions that have enabled us to become a nation people all over the world aspire to come to.
Christian nations were the first to abolish slavery, when most of the world still endorsed it. Christian nations were the first (and thus far pretty much the only) nations to allow same-sex marriage. And Christian nations are hands-down the most democratic, tolerant, and prosperous on earth.
There is a simple explanation for this: the New Testament’s constant harping that we must:
(a) love one another: “Love thy neighbor as thyself” and (b) be tolerant and non-violent: “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also.”
Though most often honored in the breach, over the centuries these rules, in constant battle with our baser instincts, have empowered us to build a peaceable, prosperous society.
In 1950, most of America’s children regularly attended churches where they were taught those simple rules through stories and songs, such as, “Red and yellow, black and white, They are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
The Civil Rights Act was passed. Our schools had no fences or metal detectors. Teenage boys drove their pickups to high school with their rifles racked in the rear window. Nobody shot up Walmart.
Today less than 10 percent of children regularly attend church. But they’re constantly exposed, for example, to a recent hit TV series where the “heroine” lies to her sister, steals from her parents, and has unprotected sex with a guy she just met in a bar – all in the first episode.
Meanwhile, unwed motherhood and drug and alcohol addiction are epidemic and mass shootings are commonplace. Does it take a genius to see some connectable dots here?
So, to all my Eureka friends – Christian or not – I ask this holiday season: Let us love one another, be kind to one another, and honor the essential role of our Christian heritage in building a diverse, inclusive and equitable society.
Dan Jones
The United States is the first secular government in the world. There is no mention of religion in the constitution and if you study the deliberations leading up to the final draft you will see that the founders were adamant on this issue. There are no laws pertaining to religious heresy or blasphemy as was the case in Great Britain at the time.
Humanity does not need a deity or holy book with which to derive its morality. On the contrary the Christian Bible was used to justify slavery in the southern states. In 1844 the American Baptist Convention condemned slavery. It was right after this that the Southern Baptist Convention was formed. Slavery was ended after a bloody civil war where 700,000 men died.
The Bible should be read cover to cover before anyone states that it teaches morals and love. I think it’s time for our society to realize that much of the evil in the world today can be linked to religion. Our state government has a majority of people who claim to be devout Christian and yet they have passed the first law of the session to label any performances where people are dressed in drag to be restricted to industrial parks and where no children are allowed. The current laws pertaining to women’s rights are written by men who claim to be good Christians.
I never could wrap my head around a god that had to impregnate a woman to bear himself so that he could sacrifice himself to himself in order to save humanity from himself!