Movement is Growing to Replace Religion with Materialism
In earlier issues, I have written about the apparent push in the field of psychiatry to remove the idea of God and the concept of a soul from psychiatric precepts.
This progressive shift in ideology has led its staunchest practitioners to totally disregard any consideration of the infections of the soul as a cause of psychiatric illness.
As time passes, the effects of this disregard manifest in the increased prevalence of mental afflictions and a similar escalation in unsuccessful curative options for these diseases. After further reflection on this subject, it became obvious that a significant part of the problem is that there is a similar movement in all aspects of American culture. In essence, the general inclination is to remove God and religion from all that we do and from whom we are.
There are a few examples below, that have been gleaned from the perusal of the hundreds of articles written on the subject. These should help illustrate the point above and hopefully help us determine a way to reverse this trend which is sure to destroy the very fabric of American culture and the principles on which this country was founded.
BLOUNTVILLE, TN – In August of 2003, the Sullivan County Courthouse was forced to remove the Ten Commandments from display, as the ACLU cited that it was a violation of the Constitution. Ironically, the attorney originally assigned to defend the perspective of the county to keep it, ended up recommending its removal. Opponents of this, believe that this is an insult to the fathers of this country who established the Constitution within the pretext of those commandments.
COLORADO – A mother was astounded at what occurred in her son’s fourth grade class. They were given the assignment of coming up with someone they considered a hero. They were to write an essay, and then stand before the class dressed as that person and give an oral report. The boy chose our master Jesus Christ, peace and blessings be upon him. When this was brought to the attention of school officials, he was immediately instructed to pick another hero. After adamant objection by his parents, the school reached a compromise and allowed the boy to write his essay and dress up, but he would only be allowed to give his oral report to his teacher in private.
NEVADA – A third grader in a Las Vegas school was asked to write in her journal, an entry that told what she enjoyed most about the month of December. When the girl was writing that she enjoyed the fact that it was the birthday of Jesus, son of the chaste Mary (peace be upon them), and that people were able to celebrate it, she was immediately informed by her teacher that she could not write about religion in school.
LOUISIANA – Across the state, nearly 53,000 high school diplomas were recalled due to a problem encountered with format that wasn’t approved by the State Superintendent of Education. In the space that holds the date of the diploma, the customary letters A.D.- which stand for anno domini, the year of the lord – were printed. As this has some religious connotations, the notation on the date line was changed to C.E.—or Common Era—which is considered more politically correct. These unapproved diplomas were destroyed, and replacement documents sent.
WASHINGTON – The top instrumental portion of the Snohomish County High School band annually selects a piece to perform at graduation. In June 2006, they wanted to perform the piece Ave Maria by Franz Biebl. As they had practiced this piece and performed it on other occasions, they felt comfortable with it. They proposed to do the piece without lyrics or words. Additionally, they would exclude the lyrics from the programs distributed to the audience. Even under these conditions the school superintendent, Carol Whitehead, refused to allow them to perform the selection at graduation. As their First Amendment rights were violated, the matter was taken to court by one of the members of the band Kathryn Nurre. The federal district court ruled that it was okay to violate someone’s First Amendment rights in order to circumvent offending anyone who may attend the graduation. The US Court of Appeals agreed with this decision, and the band was not allowed to perform the piece. This case, Nurre v. Whitehead, has established the right of school administrators to censor material that has even the slightest association with religion.
The list of examples such as these continues to grow as one period of time progresses into another in American history. The original reason that pilgrims traveled thousands of miles into uncharted waters and territories, was to escape the religious persecution they faced in their native lands. They withstood unknown dangers, plagues, and the fact they would never return to their homeland, all in the name of God. As we built our country, religion was at the forefront of this effort. One example of this fact is a prayer that was said by one of our country’s esteemed forefathers, Benjamin Franklin, when establishing the Constitution. He said: “I have lived, sirs, a long time—81 years—and the longer I live, the more convincing proof I see of this truth, that God governs the affairs of men. And ‘if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice,’ is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?”
How and why have we now arrived at a point where we have totally usurped our founding principles? The reason boils down to materialism.
As our apparent knowledge and understanding of biology has increased, our inherent reliance on God seems to have decreased. The more we know, the more we think we can contend with Him and the less we think we need Him. Matters are made worse by the ideas of scientists such as Charles Darwin, in which biological validity is given to morally reprehensible behavior; thus making these actions accepted in society. These ideas persist as they are in tune with our idea of freedom to do what we want and our level of moral decadence. In order to go on behaving in this manner, we slowly and systematically continue removing all opposing moral ideas—which for us, are interwoven in religion and God—from our society. So in essence we are attempting to remove God and thus any sense of moral obligation we have, in order to further our material objectives.
What we seem to be forgetting is that it is impossible to have a society in which God is not a part, for He is the sole reason why anything in a society exists! The more we try to live, ignoring this concept, the worse society becomes – as seen in increasing crime rates, mental diseases, human atrocities and natural disasters.
In order to reverse this trend and truly prosper, we must turn away from our ungodliness and immorality. If done, we may achieve the reality of the slogan “God bless America, the land I love.” As always, only by God, The Almighty and All Glorious, can we be healed.