Wisconsin Forums

[CarGuy]

Subject: Ben Stein's thoughts


Finally, someone says what REGULAR people
think!

The following was written by Ben Stein and
recited by him on CBS
Sunday Morning Commentary . . . excellent.

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from
my beating heart: I have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them
on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog
biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers
at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and
Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my
life if I know who they are and why they have broken
up? Why are they so important?

I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either,
and I do not care at all
about Tom Cruise's wife. Am I going to be
called before a Senate
committee and asked if I am a subversive?
Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica
are. If this is what it means to be no longer young,
it's not so bad.

Next 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 crèche,
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, p eriod. 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 the many jokes we send to one
another for a laugh, this is a little different:
This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny,
it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on
the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could
God let something like this happen (regarding
Katrina)?"

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful
response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just
as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our
schools, to get out of our government and to get out
of our lives. And being the Great God that He is, I
believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect
God to give us His blessing and His protection if we
demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events... terrorists
attacks, 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."

It's 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 i f 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.

This Ben Stein Guy seems to have summed up a lot of things that have been on my mind lately.