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My
confession:
(attributed
to Ben Stein)
I am a Jew, and every
single one of my ancestors was Jewish.
And it does not bother
me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees
Christmas trees. I don't feel
threatened. I don't feel
discriminated against. That's what they are:
Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit
when people say, "Merry Christmas"
to me. I don't think they
are slighting me or getting ready to put me
in a ghetto. In fact, I
kind of like it. It shows that we are all
brothers and sisters
celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a
manger scene on display at a key
intersection near my
beach house in Malibu.
If people want a crche,
it's just as fine with me
as is the Menorah a few hundred
yards away.
I don't like getting pushed
around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around
for being Christians. I
think people who believe
in God are sick and tired of getting pushed
around, period. I have no
idea where the concept came from that America
is an explicitly atheist
country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved
down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it
another way: where did the idea come from
that we should worship
Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?
I guess that's a sign
that I'm getting old, too. But
there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and
Jessica came from and
where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes
we send to one another for a laugh,
this is a little
different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to
get you thinking.
Billy Graham's daughter was
interviewed on the Early Show and
Jane Clayson asked her
"How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina)
Anne Graham gave an
extremely profound and insightful response.
She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are,
but for years we've been
telling God to get out of our schools, to get
out of our government and
to get out of our lives. And
being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed
out. How can we expect
God to give us His blessing and His protection
if we demand He leave us
alone?"
In light of recent
events...terrorists attack, school
shootings, etc. I think
it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she
was murdered, her body
found recently) complained she didn't want
prayer in our schools,
and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou
shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your
neighbor as yourself. And
we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock
said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little
personalities would be
warped
and we might damage their
self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed
suicide). We said an
expert should know what he's talking about. And we
said OK.
Now we're asking ourselves
why our children have no conscience,
why they don't know right
from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to
kill strangers, their
classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about
it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do
with "WE REAP WHAT WE
SOW."
Funny how simple it is for
people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.
Funny how we
believe what the
newspapers say, but question what
the Bible says.
Funny how you can send
'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending
messages regarding the Lord,
people think twice about
sharing. Funny
how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but
public discussion of God is suppressed in the
school and workplace.
Are you laughing?
Funny how when you forward
this message, you will not send it
to many on your address
list because you're not sure what they believe,
or what they will think
of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more
worried about what other people think
of us than what God
thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it
has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you
discard this thought
process, don't sit back and
complain about what bad shape the world is
in.
My Best Regards.
Honestly and
respectfully,
Ben Stein
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