When you tune into cablecast news, it seems that much of the world is in the throes of religious wars. While we don’t – yet – have a lot of violence from members of one faith against another here in the U.S., nevertheless we do see things such as the recent uproar over the Indiana religious liberty law; with the pro-LGBT movement targeting believers who opt to peacefully live out their faith as they understand it.
The LGBTers ought to fight to protect that pizza shop owners beliefs and rights. After all, it is extremist Muslims who are killing homosexuals overseas, not Christians doing so.
It seems that what tolerance really means to some is that ‘you better see the world my way,’ or else suffer the verbal, financial or even physical attacks. Here and abroad, we are witnessing defamation, pressure – and in places – even death on full display. That’s the real intolerance.
So it was thousands of years ago, before Moses lead his people out of the bondage of Egypt. This is commemorated in part in the Feast of Passover.
Credit: When Is Calendar.
For Christians, Passover took on a new meaning in the arrest, torture, execution by crucifixion of the Jew, Jesus of Nazareth. That gruesome death was followed by the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Believers see these acts as being done in atonement for the sins of man, individually and collectively, and that forgiveness could be claimed by the faithful.
Image credit: CNN.
CNN recently, and others over the years, have traced the steps science has taken in identifying the alleged burial cloth of Jesus – known today as the Shroud of Turin – and the associated burial head cloth, known in our times as the Sudarium of Oviedo. Faith doesn’t lack historic and contemporary support, for those willing to see.
As we are in the midst of these religious holy days, it should give us pause to reflect on what happens in society and the world when people of faith are unjustly attacked, vilified and persecuted.
The Communists and Nazis caused suffering and death for tens of millions in the last century. It was the persecution of believers that motivated many to come to America centuries ago, in search of religious freedom. It seems religious liberty and personal freedom have a connection.
We in the housing business sell a home to anyone who can qualify and afford one. That includes people of faith, agnostics too, or even atheists. We routinely publish new articles on Fair Housing, penned by a legal expert, to remind all of the law on such matters.
That said, we ought not sit idly by while militant groups unjustly persecute others for their beliefs.
Some in the ranks of MH Professionals object to unfair treatment by the media, public officials or others. Some understand the value of modern MH. We want the truth about our product and services known, so more can benefit and we can thereby prosper. We want the rights of our business and home owners to be respected and protected.
But rights and truth aren’t something found in a vacuum. They exist precisely in a well ordered society. Your rights to do business honorably don’t exist apart from the rights of others to live their lives in peace and justice too.
For any who think that one faith is no different than another, all one has to do is look around. Watch the news. Those terrorists groups are not flying a Christian or Jewish banner as they kidnap, kill, or blow up shops, malls, churches and schools. No nation is perfect. But the Israeli government isn’t repeatedly threatening the destruction of Iran, it is the other way around.
Image credit: Easter 2015.
I can promote the good word about manufactured housing, because we live in a nation with a Constitution that protects what the Declaration of Independence called our God-given rights. As soon as we leave the moorings of Constitutional safeguards, we tread into the choppy waters where force can be used against the nation’s citizens.
It is good to ponder the history of humanity, because one group oppressing another has long been part of it. Atheistic regimes – Communists and Nazis – proved in the 20th century that the ‘no religion’ the Beatles sung about isn’t the solution. Communists and Nazis had no religion, and they killed more people than all the religious wars combined.
By contrast, protecting the rights of people of faith who respect the rights of others is necessary for a just society. One set of rights doesn’t exist apart from others.
Please give me believers in the Ten Commandments, those who seek to live those out in their lives over those who think they can rob, pillage, rape, torture, bully and brutalize others. Please give me those kinds of believers vs. those who do terrible things in the name of politics or religion.
A friend of mine in the manufactured home building side of the industry sent me this today (Good Friday)…
“Hi Tony, just had a plant wide meeting and told them, “Each time you drive a nail or hear one driven, think of what happened some 2000 years ago.”
We should not only celebrate the freedom that the Fourth of July reminds us of, but also the freedom that Passover and Easter recall too. We should then take that a step further, working to protect those liberties – safeguarded and lived in peace – for all people of good will. Your business or profession will have little meaning if at any time someone can come along and just take it from you by threat of arms, a false law, etc. ##
By L. A. “Tony” Kovach.
