Holy Wars - At Home and Abroad

Over the weekend I received one of those emails... you know, the ones that tell the story of an honorable yet humble teacher, veteran, radio or tv personality who "tells it like it is" about what is ailing America. This one had a high school principal from Kingston, TN addressing the crowd at a high school football game about how he can no longer say a prayer before games, yet schools may dispense condoms and teach abortion as birth control among other things. I always enjoy these emails, which are normally only fictional portrayals or anecdotes at best. However, they serve an important role in that they highlight the crying out of a significant portion of American society, a humble class of folk which is often silenced by the mainstream media. These people aren't the loudest bunch, and they aren't always visible either, so these emails seem to give them a much needed voice.

As I usually do, I do a quick Snopes.com search of the content of these emails to confirm my suspicions, that they are indeed fictional works. It is typically with mild disappointment, yet coming as no surprise, that this in indeed the case. Today I was delighted that Snopes revealed that this was in fact a true story, and I hoped that the stadium was crowded when this school principal highlighted the hypocracy of our politically correct society.

On the other side of the globe in Iraq, at a time when US troops have been pulling out, there has been a rash of church bombings - seven in just three days. It's as if the insurgents are quickly trying to get our attention, saying, "hey, we aren't done yet - let's play this out!"

We used to hear more talk of "holy wars;" in fact, many believe they have been prophesized. There is a holy war going on right here at home just as there is abroad. But this war is more subtle, and bombs used are movies like "Religulous" or court decisions born of overinterpretation of First Amendment rights. But whether or not we pull out of the Middle East, or our courts try to silence Tennessee high school principals, I firmly believe "this ain't over yet."