(Background: the Texas State board of Education -- appointed by the Governor -- gets to have huge influence over the curricula taught & text books used in the Texas public schools. The current Governor is a Conservative (Republican) and not surprisingly, the board is made up of a majority of Republicans; with no education background, to boot. Over the last year, they have exercised unimaginable control over the content that will be published in text books ... i.e. excluding some Black & Mexican civil rights leaders & historic figures from history books. So ... here's their latest undertaking:
"The Texas State Board of Education is expected to consider next week a measure that would prohibit textbooks from pushing Islam over Christianity, as they claim has happened in the past."
During my exchange with another commentator and his question about what my beliefs are about John 3:16 and the Nicene Creed ... I responded with the following)
disclaimer (of sorts): my parents are "Roman Catholic" so you know that I recited the Apostles Creed (a.k.a. Nicene Creed) like a parrot, growing up. but ... my most influential "friends" were Jesuit priests (danger, zone, right ! ha ha ha)
as to John 3:16 "for God so loved the world ..." God so loved the world He created with all its wonder from the Smokey Mountains to Mount Everest; from the Alps' majesty to the mystique of Patagonia (Argentina) ... from the Sahara desert to Great Sandy (Australia) ... from the glorious Coral reefs of Sri Lanka to those in E. Rennell's (Solomon Islands) From the pristine Biolewieza Forest of Poland to the Rain forests of Costa Rica ... and the glorious list goes on and on ...
amid this glory - I feel small and stand in awe.
yet, what takes my breath away is the beauty that's held within the eyes of a new born. In that moment - I don't care whether that child's eyes belong to a Jew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist or anyone of any color, culture or region.
i simply say: I do get it ... for God so loved the WORLD -- His creation.
if so ... Jesus was His gift to everyone.
and it IS a gift. Have you noticed, you cannot shove a gift upon someone ... it has to be received.
and at the rate us Christians are going - we are shoving this so hard on people's lap and then chastising them for believing something different ... we have lost sight of the fact that it IS God's gift to offer through how we treat each other ... not how we get to shove it upon everyone else.
as to the Apostles' Creed -- there is one God - one creator. But it is not in the Bible -- it is a Creed created by the Catholic church (back in the old ages when religion was used to control & govern people).
if you speak with Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, etc. -- they'll say that they do believe in God - The Creator.
so ... basically we all agree ... it is now just a matter of which version we have managed to limit God into our meeger human "box".
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
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