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Saturday, November 05, 2016

Being on God’s Side: A Dozen Recommendations for the ‘Religious Right’


During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was purportedly asked if God was on his side. “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side,” said the president, “my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”

Although Lincoln is often praised for this remark by those who oppose the mixing of church and state, it contains three of the most controversial ideas in American politics: (1) that it is legitimate to invoke the name of God within the realm of political discourse; (2) that God is always right, including in what he has revealed to us through general and special revelation; and (3) that since God takes sides on certain political and social issues, some people will be divinely justified while others will stand in opposition not only to the views of their political opponents but also to the will of the very Creator and Sustainer of the Universe.

If you find these ideas absurd and repugnant, you are most likely a secularist. If you find them to be embarrassing truths, you may be on the religious left. If you find them so obvious that they hardly need stating, you are probably a member, for lack of a less-loaded term, part of the so-called religious right. Read More

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