Richmond Writer Michael Paul Williams Rams Battered Narrative Into Wall Of Truth. Part 1
"The wall separating church and State? Hand me a battering ram." OPINION
Williams opens with a straw man argument and enlists an army of them in his attack on Hanover County. Williams should pay more attention to Richmond which is now number three in murders and has more crime than 85% of all other cities in the country. Crime is over twice as high in Richmond as in Hanover. He is also smart enough to know his screed is bunk, but admitting it ruins the narrative. I will attempt to answer each straw man and distortion regurgitated, but given the fallaciousness of the entire article, I’ll break up my answer into two parts.
I’ll try to make it worth your while. Links for your edification and bookmarking are included wherever possible. The links may or may not be fully accurate. Do your own research. This opinion is not an endorsement of Monolo or Coleman’s appointment- I oppose both. Monolo avoided the issues of Cultural Marxism in his run and now it’s on his doorstep.
" The wall separating church and State? Hand me a battering ram."
The so-called separation phrase is from correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and the Danbury Baptist Church, not the Constitution. The concern of the Baptists had nothing to do with what Williams and other revisionist Leftists spin as 'religion' today. They were concerned that the government would have a State sponsored denomination as in England.
The Founders never considered 'religion' as meaning other than Christianity in their day, and their use conveyed denomination. They were mostly Protestants of various stripes, with few exceptions. There are no references in any correspondence or documents to the word religion as referring to faith systems other than Christianity.
Redefining the past to suit a contemporary agenda is known as presentism. The Founders, many being ordained clergy and seminary educated, would be disqualified from serving in the government they created if they meant what people like Williams impose on history. Franklin led prayer at the Constitutional Convention. Did Jefferson protest Franklin's profession of faith as Williams does to Monolo, Coleman, and Redd? We need to go no further to see how pathetic is Williams's argument, if but just for the fun of it...
Try Article VI, Clause III of the U.S. Constitution, which states "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
Does anyone believe the Constitution is self-contradicting? The 1st Amendment protects the profession of faith, period. Leftists revise the plain meaning of these Articles to suit race baiting and or pro-sodomy agendas, socialism, communism, and other extremisms. The Leftist is conditioning you to believe religion belongs in the home or a church building- out of sight. That was never the intent of the Founders. Williams suggests Article VI nullifies Article I! These same people never call out Islam over its hostility to other religions, child marriages and rape, subjugation of women and its bloody borders, or Hinduism or Buddhism for their violent extremists. They pick on orthodox Christianity because the Amendment they want to deny others affords them the opportunity. The 1st Amendment protects us from men like Williams.
"In Hanover, the appointments of Redd and Coleman suggest a religious test is in full effect. Monolo said the quiet part out loud. But so-called Christian values in the political sphere ill-serve public policy and civil discourse. The vinegary nature of deliberations and decision-making on the Hanover School Board vividly illustrate the corrosive impact."
The next straw man is the "religious test." The only religious test I see belongs to Williams- if you are a Christian and exercise your right to say so in the public square, you are to be ostracized and marginalized. He sets out to enforce it by redefining Christian values. Then as a modern-day Torquemada, he levels his heresy charge!
“Our sentiments are uniformly on the side of religious liberty‐‐that religion is at all times and places a matter between God and individuals‐‐that no man ought to suffer in name, person, or effects on account of his religious opinions‐‐that the legitimate power of civil government extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbors” Nehemiah Dodge; Ephraim Robbins; Stephen S. Nelson- Danbury Baptist Church (to whom the separation phrase was given as assurance there would be no State-sponsored denomination ).
"Christian values in the political sphere ill-serve public policy and civil discourse. My growing fear of this destructive mix — and an invitation from Ginter Park Presbyterian Church — landed me in the pulpit on a recent Sunday to preach a cautionary layman's sermon about the weaponization of faith toward un-Christlike ends."
How shocking is it that a man armed with a "battering ram" against free speech is allowed in any pulpit? But this is no ordinary pulpit; it is a pulpit in a church that loves the Zeitgeist- the spirit of the age. A church considered heretical and so much so it suffered a schism some years ago, dividing itself over much the same ideology pushed here- Leftism squashing Truth rather than illuminating it.
“I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without [H]is notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without [H]is aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that "except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without [H]is concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall be become a reproach and a bye word down to future age. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human Wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.” Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention
These co-religionists routinely misrepresent the Constitution, whose underlying principles are straight from Scripture. The very form of the Constitution is Creedal. The preamble of the Constitution begins with a corporate confession, as do the Apostles and Nicene Creeds, which open with "We believe."
"We the People…" Exodus 24:3 - Deuteronomy 31:12-13; 1 Samuel 8:10-18
"In order to form a more perfect union…" Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:6; Psalms 133:1
"Establish justice…" Psalms 82:3 - Proverbs 1:3; Proverbs 21:3 -Ezekiel 45:9; Acts 10:34
"Ensure domestic tranquility…" Leviticus 26:6
“Promote the general welfare…” 1 Chronicles 22:13; Joshua 1:8; Proverbs 31:20
"Provide for the common defense…" Hebrews 11:32- 34; Luke 14:31-32 -
"Secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…" Genesis 45:7; Daniel 2:44-45; Galatians 5:1
The Constitution places speech before and above all else; interestingly, so does the Gospel, according to Saint John. I assure you, with seminary-educated and ordained Founders, it was no coincidence.
Williams projects by calling Monolo and his appointee "un-Christ-like." But his Christ is revisionist, modeled after worldly ideology and philosophies, pursues gratification of the flesh, divides on race, seeking any aspect of life with which to devour society. In this scheme, only the government offers salvation and rights through regulatory interpretation and obedience to the mob. His Christ would never have sent Apostles "to the whole world" to proclaim the Good News but locked them in their upper room, stood with Pontius Pilate, and crucified anyone the mob labeled a white nationalist!
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"A chunk of our fellow citizens seem to be spoiling for a theocracy, or an autocracy, not a democracy. White Christian nationalism — which I would assert has everything to do with 'white' and next to nothing to do with Christian, is in vogue; a pluralistic society is not,"
It's easy to see who the theocrat is here, railing what can be said and where and it sounds a lot like Marxism and Secular Humanism. A black activist wanting to live on the philosophical plantation of an old white male European like Karl Marx and then holler about white nationalists seems odd to me.
Note the distortion that our form of government is a democracy. It is not, it is a Constitutional Republic with democratic principles. Our Founders did everything they could to prevent this nation from becoming a democracy because they all eventually fell into totalitarianism. For this reason, there is no use of the word democracy in any founding document or State Constitution.
Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.”
Attributed to Benjamin Disraeli.
"It seems to me that the more 'religious' this nation becomes, the meaner people have gotten."
Fatuous nonsense. Religious people are proven in many studies (liberals love studies) to be happier, less judgmental, live longer, and be more law-abiding, charitable, and tolerant than non-religious. Certainly more so than this fellow.
That certainly seems to be the case on the Hanover School Board, which too frequently fails to disguise its antipathy toward residents who do not share its agenda.
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WIlliams writes for the Richmond Paper - thus the title of the article.