Things that make you go, “hmmm…”

I hope they don’t mind me posting this on my journal. I just thought this was very interesting. Something for all of us to think about.
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

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 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
Ben Stein