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Aug 19, 2004 When I was a teenager, I went through a period where I questioned God’s existence. Maybe I was testing the waters, trying to make sense of the world. Or I was feeling His absence as I watched my father sink deeper into alcoholism while my mother remarried the local, beloved minister of our church. It could have also been the stuff I was smoking. (Yes, I tried pot and I even inhaled, but my asthma prevented me from “holding it in” more than a few seconds!) At sixteen, I dated a guy who seriously considered becoming a Catholic priest. Throughout our yearlong relationship, we discussed my agnosticism at length, and he’d always point out the proof around me that God exists. Looking back, I believe he replanted the seeds that brought back my faith. (And he got me to stop smoking pot.) My belief in God came back with a vengeance two years later when I gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl. As I watched her nurse for the first time (another miracle in itself to become a food source overnight!) I no longer questioned His existence. God’s work was staring back at me. Over the years I got divorced and moved around, but I had my daughter baptized, communioned, and confirmed. I taught her to pray. I even formally converted to Catholicism and had my first marriage annulled. (Can you see the ex-boyfriend reading this over coffee, wiping sprayed droplets from his screen?) As I watched my daughter grow, I was disturbed that lawyers seemed to be running the country more each day, and good morals and basic common sense were flying out the window. As I pondered these changes, one answer remained clear. Our country was loosing its prized citizen. Our country was losing God. I'm ashamed I ever questioned His existence. What a scary place this will be if He loses His citizenship. It all started when we removed prayer in schools to satisfy one or two atheists. (I’ve met ONE atheist in 38 years!) When people are in an uproar to get the Ten Commandments removed from courthouses, yet post billboards outside of it of Christina Aguileria wearing a “top” that barely covers her nipples, I fear God is on his way out. My daughter, now old enough to vote, is torn on whom to vote for. At first I laughed and asked her what she wants to be armed with when she goes off to war: hand grenades or slingshots? “I’m serious, Mom, I don’t know who to vote for, so maybe I won’t even vote.” I told her the choices: a hypocritical Catholic who believes in abortion and gay marriage, and chameleonizes himself depending on what part of the country he’s standing in. Or we can keep our current president, who makes no bones on his belief in God or that he uses His guidance to make decisions, hasn’t wavered on his issues, and is intolerant to terrorism. (I told her she’d have to read up on Ralph Nader since I never bothered.) I also took this opportunity to give my daughter something else to chew on: the absence of God is evil, and our country is in danger of losing Him. I pointed out that some of His own believers support removing His presence from our culture to avoid offending a few people, thinking they won’t be affected. Guess what? If His believers the majority, I believe) don’t use His guidance as a driving force in every day life and to make decisions, we will see another Fall of Rome. (I told my daughter to read up on that, too.) We need to get back to raising our children to be God-fearing, and keeping His presence alive in our communities. Enough sermon. I hope my daughter chews on these seeds and makes a good choice when she votes this November. ------------ About the author: Karyn Hughes has a fiction book published by Authorhouse entitled, Scattered Dreams, which is about a newly single mother who battles ADHD. Email: karynlilly@comcast.net Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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