Religion and Politics ? The Anniversary of 9-11

The minute I say the words ?religion? and ?politics?, many people think those are two topics we should never talk about. As I sit to write this month?s newsletter, we are on the eve of the 6th anniversary of 9-11. Think about where you were on 9-11. I was in New York, just about a mile from the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. In fact, Darlene and I had planned to visit the World Trade Center about 11:00 that morning once I was finished with a meeting I had scheduled in the my early morning. The experience of being in New York on 9-11 makes the entire Moslem attack on everything Christian very poignant to me. It is why I maintain a position exactly opposite the notion that religion and politics are two topics we should never talk about. It is my opinion that religion and politics are the two most important topics we should talk about.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the historical events that in some way have laid the foundation for the religious chaos we find in the world today.

We in the United States often distinguish ourselves from others that may be a little different from us. For example, the Protestants want to separate themselves from the Catholics and vice versa and the non-denominational Christians want to distinguish themselves from all Christian denominations and religions. This thought ran through my mind as I was reading the sports section of our local paper yesterday. I have often thought of the Crusades as sort of a ?Catholic? thing. After all, it was Pope Urban II that was primarily responsible for the start of the Crusades in 1095. People in Western Europe were shocked when the Pope said, ?The Muslims have conquered Jerusalem?. Pope Urban wanted the Christians to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims. What shocked me in the sports section was that a non-denominational Christian school had the nickname ?Crusaders? for their sports teams. WOW! Maybe there is hope that all Christians can someday find unity.

THE NEWS

This past weekend, Osama Bin Laden released a new video where he once again takes credit for 9-11 and in some small way links 9-11 to Iraq. The release of this video once again puts religion and politics in the same headline. Yes it is time that we connect the dots! We are in a war not as aggressors, but against the aggressors. The Moslem extremists are trying to eliminate Christianity from the world just like they tried to eliminate it from the Holy Land in the eleventh century. The threat that the Moslem extremists pose now is far greater than just the loss of the Holy Land. I have nothing against any individual Moslem, and actually respect their right to worship God in their own way. What I am not in favor of is the way that the Moslems seem to always be interfering in my own ability to live my life in a way that is consistent with what I know to be truths from the Bible.

ATTITUDE

In America, we have created a society that has its foundation in Judeo-Christian values and principles. There is no argument that the early settlers from Western Europe were people of ?faith?. They included prayer in their lives in a very significant way. The heritage that we inherit has its basis in a way of life that is reflective of the culture that existed when our nation was founded. For nearly two hundred years there was no question that our children would begin their day in school with a prayer. There was no question that to testify in a court of law you would place your hand on a Bible. There was no question that the Ten Commandments provided a sort of moral compass for our country. But, in less than 50 years, all of that has changed. Now, we can?t have prayer in schools, before sporting events, graduation events, or any event involving our children. This is ludicrous. I know that many of you will look at my attitude on this as too rigid and not flexible, however I believe that we are experiencing the results of this ?secularization? and it is manifesting itself in a society that is out of control.

THE SPIRITUAL

Prior to the Supreme Court ruling that prayer in school is unconstitutional, the worst things that happened in school were chewing gum and smoking in the bathrooms. Now, we have to protect our children from guns and knives at school. In my opinion when you take away a child?s focus on the spiritual dimension and limit his or her focus on the physical, you are depriving that child of a significant part of his or her development. Some say that children should get ?religion? at home. Yes?..

But consider that a child is at school from early morning until late afternoon, nearly an eight hour time frame with commuting time included. Once home, they have to complete homework, eat dinner and maybe take a little time for recreation prior to getting into bed by nine. These activities take another six hours. The child spends more time in school than at home.

We depend on school to teach our kids everything else, why should we not develop them spiritually as well? The thing that I have come to learn is that even though, as I mentioned in the opening, we tend to distinguish ourselves from one another, most of us are closer spiritually than we are different spiritually.

Many years ago, I was involved in a business venture and a few of the people I was working with were Moslems. In a weird sort of way they were more Christian than some of my Christian friends. I mentioned this to them and they pointed out that the Christians, Jews and Moslems are all descendants of Abraham. So we all have common ancestry. This opened my eyes to the fact that we in America are close even if we claim to be different. I now think that because of this ?closeness? we should be able to find a way to develop the spirituality of our children on moral grounds as a way to turn the tide on what we see developing in our society.

Although the Moslem extremists are attacking American ?infidels,? to them it is the culture that they are attacking. They see the result of the removal of anything moral or spiritual from our society. They see an oversexed and over violent society. They blame it on the political system and, in a way they are correct. Our political system is one that has allowed for a small vocal minority to completely neutralize the moral fiber of our country, and if we are not careful, we will soon find that morality will be completely absent in our society. We seem to have a focus on the physical part of our being. The beautiful ones get the attention. The stronger ones play the sports. Well, you get the picture.

We are spiritual beings living in a physical body. And as such, we need to feed the spiritual side of our being. That is where prayer, meditation and quiet reflection come in as food for our spiritual nature. Quiet time at the beginning of the day is very important. If we would all begin our day with some quiet time, we would all be setting in motion the dynamic for society to function in a way where we as participants are prepared to cope with whatever comes our way. If we as parents set the example and our children see prayer and meditation as a valuable part of our daily lives, then maybe we can begin to turn the tide.

I hope that whatever your moral, spiritual or religious foundation is, that you will work on their development. I hope that you will see your life as comprised of three parts, physical, mental and spiritual. I hope that you see it is as important to work on the mental and spiritual as well as physical.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The reality is that religious fanatics have infiltrated the international political arena. With the attacks on American Embassies, warships, and the two attacks on the World Trade Center, they have declared war on us. We have no alternative but to defend ourselves. I do believe that we also must defend ourselves from those within our borders that have moved our society away from one in which we have a strong moral character to one that would rather legalize porn than prayer in schools. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that as our society becomes more and more permissive we become more and more like the Roman Empire before its collapse. If we are not careful, we might find ourselves cratering from within.

We have developed the greatest political system, economic system and the greatest lifestyle ever. The reality is that we can only enjoy it on this earth and we can?t take it with us when we die. We must consider Pascal?s challenge. If you don?t believe in God and are correct, then the fact that I believe in God and was wrong only results in me losing a little bit of ?fun? on earth. If however you don?t believe in God, and are wrong and you live your life as if there is no God, then you will have to pay a huge price for ETERNITY.

The choice on how you live your life is always yours; that is until it affects someone else. Those that have chosen to eliminate God from our society have affected those of us that do believe. For us believers, we continue to believe, to pray and to hope for a return to a more moral society. To the others, as a good friend of mine says, ?If you are living your life as if there is no God, well, you better be right.?

Deacon Jodi Moscona was born in New Orleans. He holds a BA degree in Political Science from the University of New Orleans and a Juris Doctorate from Loyola University of the South. He also holds a certificate from the Religious Studies Institute and a Diaconate Certificate from St. Joseph?s Seminary College at St. Benedict, Louisiana. He moved to Baton Rouge nearly 20 years ago where he currently lives with his wife Darlene and their daughter Alicia, a 2006 graduate of LSU.

Deacon Jodi and Darlene also have two sons, Brian a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Matthew a graduate of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. Brian lives in Atlanta and works at Holy Spirit Prep where he teaches and coaches. Matthew is a radio personality in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Deacon Jodi is assigned as Deacon Associate at the Christ the King Student Center on the campus of Louisiana State University. As a public speaker and retreat master, he has taught classes at all levels and has lead retreats in both business and religious settings.

Source: http://www.1directory.net/business/religion-and-politics-the-anniversary-of-9-11-2035.html

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