Mimsy Were the Borogoves

Editorials: Where I rant to the wall about politics. And sometimes the wall rants back.

Stephen Colbert’s Christian nation

Jerry Stratton, December 2, 2014

Dear friends who keep posting Stephen Colbert and other quotes about us being a Christian nation meaning we need higher taxes to force everyone to give charitably to the poor and needy:

Most American Christians will tell you that being a Christian nation means we were founded in Christian values, and that this includes, as part of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the freedom to choose our own Christian duties, the freedom to choose our own charitable acts. The freedom, that is, to choose wrongly as well as rightly; that virtue is no longer virtue when it is forced upon us by the government.

However, you certainly will be able to find Christians who agree with you, who will support your desire to have the government enforce Christian values at the point of the gun. They will happily join you in your crusade to enforce charity at all costs, to teach Christian beliefs at all levels of our government-run schools, to treat conception as the beginning of human life which must be protected at all costs…

This is what you want, right? This is what you’re asking for when you ask us to become a Christian nation by forcing Christian works?

Because that is not a nation I’m looking forward to.

In response to Christian values at the point of a gun: Where in the New Testament does Jesus tell us to force our neighbor at gunpoint to give to the poor?