Here’s why. According to the Bible, each individual has the “free will” to accept or reject the teachings therein. It is a belief system based on obedience to the unenforceable. You tell me how any government could enforce the First Commandment-”Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” 

The First Amendment adheres to this line of reasoning and believing as it states: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… “

Furthermore the Bible is not a book of facts. There are surely some in it, but it rests on historical accounts written by men. For example — “In the beginning” is very imprecise, revealing the fact that no one knows when the beginning was. Each individual could potentially make up his/her own theory about the date or even era. Secondly, “God created… “ Native Indians wanted to know where Europeans’ God came from. Did he create himself?

As a child I attended Long Branch, Locust Field and Jarrett Memorial Baptist Churches in rural Jackson County. I was taught to believe in God and the teachings of the King James Version of the Bible. To this day I believe there are very solid human relations principles in the Bible, especially in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. But, there is no place in the Bible where I read that God or Jesus asked believing Christians to enforce a belief in God. I see only “free will” given to each person to believe or deny. 

There is no tenet in the Bible that would suggest that America require its citizens to defer to Christian beliefs. No theocracy. There is nothing in our Constitution that would allow/support a theocracy. Individual choice and “free will” must remain our guiding principles. 

Know your Bible. Know your Torah. Know your Koran. But, no theocracy!

Dave Waldrop

Webster