Patriotism-Dead or Alive?
Do We Need A Revival?
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
I am Patriotic and proud of it. I always have been. I get goose bumps when I sing God Bless America, or My Country Tis of Thee. I can't help it. It was ingrained in me since I was a child I guess. We used to sing these songs all the time. When was the last time you had the opportunity to sing about our Heritage or even hear one of these Patriotic songs outside of a sports arena? Do our young children today even know these songs?
My earliest school memories involve singing such songs every morning before school started. We would stand and sing by our desks two or three such songs. I remember singing When The Saints Go Marching In which happened to be right up there as one of my all time favorites. No this was not some Christian private school by the way. This was public school.
Boy, alot has changed since then. I AM NOT THAT OLD. I was in public school in the late 60's and 70's. My mom and grandmother have stories about when they started school it always started with prayer and a scipture reading. I only remember a time of silence. Prayer had already been thrown out by the time I got into school I guess.
Anyhow this all came to my mind last week when I visited Jerry Falwell's church in Lynchburg, VA. He had a speaker last Sunday night that just blew me away. I'm familiar with him but have never seen him in person. His name is David Barton. He has a ministry called Wall Builders. He goes around the country informing all of us what has been lost in the realm of political correctness. I've heard alot of speakers in my time including some foot stomping preachers, but none in all my years captured an audience like Barton. You could audibly hear, quite well, all the gasps across that big church as Barton made statements and showed many historical documents that many of the older generation especially could remember and relate to.
Last Sunday before Barton spoke we sang all the same songs I remembered since childhood. It all came back to me as I sang out those words without the aid of the big screens all over the place. Also sung that night, of course, was the Star Spangled Banner and The Lord's Prayer. It was awesome. That place rocked last Sunday night with all the Patriots like myself singing as loud as we could and still be in key.
When I got home I read about a Christian teacher who is suing a San Diego school district he has taught in for three decades, accusing it of purging classrooms of the country's religious heritage and history. The district ordered the teacher to remove banners from his classroom walls that included mottos and slogans promoting what school officials consider a "Judeo-Christian" viewpoint.
The teacher Brad Johnson has filed a lawsuit alleging officials with the Poway Unified School District violated his constitutional rights by demanding he take down several educational banners in his classroom, some of which had been displayed -- without complaint -- for nearly 25 years. Those banners contained phrases such as "In God We Trust" (the official motto of the United States); "One Nation Under God" (a phrase from the Pledge of Allegiance); "God Bless America" (the title of a patriotic song); "God Shed His Grace On Thee" (a line from a popular patriotic song); and an excerpt from the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, "All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed By Their Creator."
Johnson, who has taught for 30 years in the district, was told by school officials the banners violated school policy because they conveyed a Judeo-Christian viewpoint. Wow! What a shame! What was he thinking?
It's funny these banners up until now have caused no disorder or disruption in the classroom. What's changed? His attorney Rob Muise had this to say:
Muise argues that the school is engaging in blatant anti-Christian discrimination against his client. "They've restricted his speech based on a viewpoint, and they claim because it promotes a Judeo-Christian viewpoint," he explains, adding that "they've demonstrated a hostility towards religion in this particular context, which is also impermissible."
"They allow a forum for certain speakers whose messages they obviously permit -- some that are not even educational in nature," says Muise. He notes that in one classroom just down the hallway from Johnson's, a teacher has displayed a poster of the grunge band Nirvana.
"Yet they prohibit my client from using the same forum to express an educational mission just because it promotes a sectarian viewpoint, in their view," Muise points out.
In a press release from the Law Center, Muise argues that public school teachers in America have a responsibility to educate their students to be informed citizens, a process that includes learning about the nation's history and its founding.
These banners served to educate these students, as they had always done , for 25 years I might add. The Patriotism that once united this country has now been slowly eradicated by those so concerned with PC.
We've come a long way Baby, and not for the better in my opinion.
That's my opinion, I welcome yours.
For more information on Barton check out his site but I'd really encourage you to listen to him, hear him speak. He's amazing to listen to.
Link
My earliest school memories involve singing such songs every morning before school started. We would stand and sing by our desks two or three such songs. I remember singing When The Saints Go Marching In which happened to be right up there as one of my all time favorites. No this was not some Christian private school by the way. This was public school.
Boy, alot has changed since then. I AM NOT THAT OLD. I was in public school in the late 60's and 70's. My mom and grandmother have stories about when they started school it always started with prayer and a scipture reading. I only remember a time of silence. Prayer had already been thrown out by the time I got into school I guess.
Anyhow this all came to my mind last week when I visited Jerry Falwell's church in Lynchburg, VA. He had a speaker last Sunday night that just blew me away. I'm familiar with him but have never seen him in person. His name is David Barton. He has a ministry called Wall Builders. He goes around the country informing all of us what has been lost in the realm of political correctness. I've heard alot of speakers in my time including some foot stomping preachers, but none in all my years captured an audience like Barton. You could audibly hear, quite well, all the gasps across that big church as Barton made statements and showed many historical documents that many of the older generation especially could remember and relate to.
Last Sunday before Barton spoke we sang all the same songs I remembered since childhood. It all came back to me as I sang out those words without the aid of the big screens all over the place. Also sung that night, of course, was the Star Spangled Banner and The Lord's Prayer. It was awesome. That place rocked last Sunday night with all the Patriots like myself singing as loud as we could and still be in key.
When I got home I read about a Christian teacher who is suing a San Diego school district he has taught in for three decades, accusing it of purging classrooms of the country's religious heritage and history. The district ordered the teacher to remove banners from his classroom walls that included mottos and slogans promoting what school officials consider a "Judeo-Christian" viewpoint.
The teacher Brad Johnson has filed a lawsuit alleging officials with the Poway Unified School District violated his constitutional rights by demanding he take down several educational banners in his classroom, some of which had been displayed -- without complaint -- for nearly 25 years. Those banners contained phrases such as "In God We Trust" (the official motto of the United States); "One Nation Under God" (a phrase from the Pledge of Allegiance); "God Bless America" (the title of a patriotic song); "God Shed His Grace On Thee" (a line from a popular patriotic song); and an excerpt from the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, "All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed By Their Creator."
Johnson, who has taught for 30 years in the district, was told by school officials the banners violated school policy because they conveyed a Judeo-Christian viewpoint. Wow! What a shame! What was he thinking?
It's funny these banners up until now have caused no disorder or disruption in the classroom. What's changed? His attorney Rob Muise had this to say:
Muise argues that the school is engaging in blatant anti-Christian discrimination against his client. "They've restricted his speech based on a viewpoint, and they claim because it promotes a Judeo-Christian viewpoint," he explains, adding that "they've demonstrated a hostility towards religion in this particular context, which is also impermissible."
"They allow a forum for certain speakers whose messages they obviously permit -- some that are not even educational in nature," says Muise. He notes that in one classroom just down the hallway from Johnson's, a teacher has displayed a poster of the grunge band Nirvana.
"Yet they prohibit my client from using the same forum to express an educational mission just because it promotes a sectarian viewpoint, in their view," Muise points out.
In a press release from the Law Center, Muise argues that public school teachers in America have a responsibility to educate their students to be informed citizens, a process that includes learning about the nation's history and its founding.
These banners served to educate these students, as they had always done , for 25 years I might add. The Patriotism that once united this country has now been slowly eradicated by those so concerned with PC.
We've come a long way Baby, and not for the better in my opinion.
That's my opinion, I welcome yours.
For more information on Barton check out his site but I'd really encourage you to listen to him, hear him speak. He's amazing to listen to.
Link
