| We teach our collegians well about the period | | | | In the Central Sulawesi area of Indonesia it is |
| known as the dark ages but do we thoroughly | | | | reported by the BBC News that three girls were |
| explain what brought on this horrible period across | | | | attacked on their way to school. The three who |
| the globe? With little fanfare the answer to that | | | | traversed through a cocoa plantation on their way |
| question is an unequivocal no. | | | | to a Christian school were beheaded. Dozens of |
| Let's do the math here. The marriage of civil and | | | | Christians have been brutally murdered in this |
| ecclesiastical power is without dispute the singular | | | | region since 2001 as militant Muslims seek to set |
| cause of the horrors of the dark ages. When the | | | | up another Islamic state there. |
| authority of the state and the church are wed, | | | | Most people in what still might be referred to as a |
| people suffer. The equation goes like this. If I am | | | | civilized world take exception to this kind of |
| a Muslim, Christian, Catholic or Jew I may practice | | | | brutality in the name of any religion. With all her |
| my religion without fear of persecution, reprisal or | | | | faults, excesses and problems America could be |
| rejection. I still must obey civil law but the judicial | | | | counted upon to deal seriously with this kind of |
| body won't besiege me with charges for the | | | | brutality especially toward children. No religious |
| beliefs I hold about God and faith. | | | | preference would keep the perpetrators of such |
| When any particular religion becomes the state | | | | crimes from being prosecuted and most likely |
| sanctioned religion then I can be prosecuted for | | | | jailed for life or executed. |
| my lack of compliance. Once Catholicism was the | | | | To the Christian it is sad thing when someone |
| state sanctioned religion and for one thousand | | | | turns to another religion or another God and |
| years the Pope ruled across the globe, with an | | | | misses the salvation that comes only from the |
| iron hand. Some say the reformation ended that | | | | Saviour of the world. Yet, no where in scripture |
| and some like to call it the recovery, that is, the | | | | are they called upon to execute any form of |
| recovering of the simple gospel message and the | | | | summary judgment against those who choose |
| abandoning of the burgeoning religious rules and | | | | not to believe. Jesus Christ may have been many |
| mandates of the church. Is Islam bringing this kind | | | | things but he is never any less than civilized, |
| of terror into civilization again? | | | | perhaps we could say he is a gentleman. |
| In America the idea of the separation of church | | | | The constitution of the United States could also |
| and state is all that stands between us and that | | | | be said to be a gentleman if it had human |
| kind of tyranny. Of course the separation of | | | | attributes. It provides the security to believe the |
| church and state is mostly a perception and not | | | | dictates of our conscience without fear of |
| actually a law. The law in America simply states | | | | tyranny. |
| that the congress will not make any laws | | | | Most of the presidents in our history have been |
| governing religion. This is a law we can live with in | | | | protestant and in the last twenty five years |
| the most literal sense of the word. In Islamically | | | | Protestants have met and surpassed the number |
| ruled nations not believing in the state sponsored | | | | of practicing Catholics in America. It would be hard |
| religion can and does cost lives. | | | | to imagine the absurdity of making Protestantism |
| News agencies have reported that an Iranian | | | | America's state religion. We would then be very |
| man, Mr. Issa Motamdi has been arrested and | | | | busy prosecuting Catholics and those in other |
| charged with apostasy. His crime was giving his | | | | religions. We can only thank God that something |
| son a Christian name. Even before his trial which is | | | | this absurd has never been found appealing to |
| not likely to be any more than a travesty there is | | | | even the most confused factions of our body |
| talk of execution. | | | | politic. |