ARTICLE SYNOPSIS:
A remembrance service at Virginia Tech this past Tuesday featured a Muslim cleric invoking the name of Allah, a Buddhist priest preaching that mankind is "basically good," and a Jewish speaker quoting from Ecclesiastes. Conspicuously absent in the service was any mention of Jesus Christ.
Follow this link to the source article: "VT Remembrance Service"
COMMENTARY:
When someone asks what religion is predominant in America, the first response has traditionally been "Christian." The first Europeans to make the journey to the New World did so to both explore new trade routes to Asia and to escape religious persecution in their homeland. Harvard University, before becoming the bastion of humanism it is today, was founded as a school to train ministers of the Gospel.
Benjamin Franklin, the great Founding Father of America, once said "He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world." Politicians place their hand on the Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, as they swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States. We could go on and on.
It is very odd, in light of these facts, that in the wake of the most horrific school shooting in our nation's history, nobody making public remarks about the incident wants to mention the name of Jesus Christ. Billions of people across the world, over the course of 20 centuries, have regarded Jesus of Nazareth as their source of salvation and comfort.
Why are people with the national spotlight focused in on them unwilling (or not allowed) to mention his name? Why was a Muslim cleric given center stage at the ceremony and not one evangelical pastor was permitted to speak? There was one Lutheran minister who talked about healing and the need for people to "come together...." Even President Bush, who twice has been elected to the presidency thanks to the millions of church-goers who support him, would not invoke the name of Jesus. Instead, he said, "...There's a power in these prayers, a real power. In times like this, we can find comfort in the grace and the guidance of a loving God."
Christianity certainly is not the official religion of the U.S., nor should it be. It cannot be denied though that a large majority of Americans who profess some kind of faith profess the Christian faith. What happened at Virginia Tech on Tuesday is the result of an unspoken policy of political correctness that high-profile spokesmen and public officials dare not tread for fear of "losing credibility" and in many cases, their jobs.
What would the first Christians think of such cowardice?
