Veil of Fire

As I was driving through Maryland yesterday, I stumbled onto a radio station on which a preacher was, well, preaching. Since I was bored (I HATE driving, had been on the road for three hours by that point), I hung around to listen.

A large part of the sermon was how God is "greater than the state, greater than pagan laws".

Is this a widely-held belief among Christians??? If so, I'm buying a gun. A big gun. And a big dog. And a home security system. With big guns.

Mecha_Dude

Make sure to stock up on Giant Robots...
Most christians I know think that.

Toto

True Christians(TM) believe that all government is ordained by god. Most Christians seem to think that god is too unknowable to be giving orders to them directly to take god's law into their own hands.

There are some Christians who think that god's law supercedes man's. But they are a distinct minority, and are more likely to try to shoot abortion clinic receptionists than you. (I assume you are not an abortion clinic receptionist, or you would know all about this.)

GaryP

I agree that most christians in the US are on the moderate side and don't think that god's law is above man's.

But it is scary to listen to christian radio. Most of it seems to be dominated by the type that Veil heard.

My wife's Presbyterian church gives money to a christian station in Columbus. I can't believe that most of the people in her church agree with about 90% ot the drivel on that station!

Buffman

There will always be sheep. Thus there will always be a struggle to see who will be the shepherd.

Currently, in this country, it seems to be a struggle among those fundamentalist Christian preachers with the most radio/TV stations, Holy Land Amusement Parks, or biggest pastoral homes/condos/castles/cottages or Crystal Cathedrals. Oh! I forgot. Add Miracle Meetings and pictures of themselves with U.S. Presidents to the list.

[ May 14, 2002: Message edited by: Buffman ]</p>

Berenger Sauniere

Kinda odd they'd want to mix their ever-so-great 'God' with something of such lesser value as the State.

ohwilleke

Entirely logically from their point of view. Fortunately, most Christians don't act on this belief. Instead, most preach the "render under Ceasar" approach.

abe smith

"superSSSSSSSSSSSSSedes" and "Render UNTO Caesar the things that are Caesar's". Just an oldschoolteacher fusspottery. Abe

Oresta

A large part of the sermon was how God is "greater than the state, greater than pagan laws".

Is this a widely-held belief among Christians???

Well, it certainly is a belief held among some highly-placed public servants and clergy with access to them. Billy Graham's son, what's-his-name, opened his invocation at Bush's inauguration with an address to God to the effect that God is sovereign over this nation.

During Clarence Thomas' testimony at his Senate hearing, he said he believed in Natural Law. For some this is the belief in a higher ethic than man-made laws. It was the impetus for the civil rights movement against segregation laws. However, for Thomas it evidently cuts another way, leading to assumptions, for example, that the Constitution is derived from a religious source, not a secular one. Thomas hates SOCUS' historically consistent interpretation of the Establishment Clause.

hezekiah jones

I don't disagree, but do you have a cite for an opinion written by Thomas? I've only ever seen him signing on to Rehnquist's and Scalia's nonsense in establishment clause cases.

In the meantime I have a hard time believing much of what Thomas has to say after his claiming he didn't recall ever having a discussion about Roe v Wade, despite being a law student at Yale at the time it came down.

Plus I think his numerous porn video rental receipts are kicking around somewhere.