This is just so sad.

Losing a best friend along with the house:  Animals abandoned, turned in as families face foreclosures on their homes

I can certainly understand and relate to some of these individuals who are put into the unenviable situation of choosing whether to care for their pet or their person with limited resources.   Being the ’owner’ of two dogs myself, one of which is a rather large breed, I can also relate to the limits placed on housing options when you are a pet owner.

So I really feel for these people who have to give up their long-time pet.   Those people who are kind enough to try and get them into the adoption pipeline... well I appreciate them doing that.   The alternative, abandoning their pet, or cutting them lose to live in the wild (which a domesticated pet is ill-equipped to do), however, sicken me. 

I know we’re all feeling the economic downturn and its hitting us all in different ways.   But this article, to me, needs to be a call to action.   It is inevitable that people are going to have to give up their pets and that some of those are going to go to shelters where they will hopefully be placed in loving homes.   While those pets are better off than their brethren who are simply left behind... there is still a bit of a psychological impact on them (moreso on dogs who have difficulty adjusting to life away from their pack). 

I implore anyone reading this... do what you can to support your local animal shelters.  They have limited resources and won’t be able to handle the influx of new arrivals.   Maybe you can donate money, but if you can’t consider donating time.   If you’re in a good situation and able, consider adopting a pet.  But don’t undertake that lightly.  Its a huge responsibility very akin to having a child (though I think less stressful).

But if you do adopt a pet, or more importantly if you, like me, are already a pet ’owner’, you need to include Rover and Garfield in your contingency plans.   Heaven forbid anything happen to you and you’re in a situation similar to these people giving up their pets...   get a plan together now.   If you had to vacate your home on short-notice and move into a no-pet apartment... what are you going to do with your pet(s)?   Don’t wait until that situations hits you on the head.   Get an action plan together now.   You do it for yourself, for your children, consider your four-legged dependants.   Chances are they give you unconditional love and loyalty.   They’re counting on you to provide for them because they can’t provide for themselves.  

If you watched that show on History channel, Life after People, then you already have an idea of how difficult it will be on fluffy if her humans aren’t around to care for her.

Talk to your friends and family.  If the worst happened, is there someone that would be willing to take in your little furball, even temporarily until you get yourself back on your feet?   Do you know what assistance is available to you from local resources like your humane society?  

I think all to often people take their pets for granted.   Mine have given me a taste of fatherhood... what it would be like to have children.   Its made me take my responsibility as an animal ’owner’ very seriously.

Leia and Dax won’t ever have to worry about being abandoned, or even given up to a shelter, should anything happen to me that prevented me from being able to care for them.    Like the cylon, I too have a plan.

It's hard to believe she's almost a year old.  Her birthday is this Wednesday and I plan to take the day off so that I can spend it with her.   She doesn't like it when I leave her behind to go to work.  Every morning it breaks my heart to hear her barking from behind my bedroom door... pleading with me to open it and let her come with me.  It hurts me in the mornings when i'm putting on my socks and shoes -- she knows I'm getting ready to go -- and seeing her laying by the door ready to leap out of the room as soon as I stand up... as though thinking that if she's just fast enough, she can escape her confinement for the day and come with me to work.

Every morning I pick her up and give her kisses and tell her how pretty she is and that I'll miss her and to be good... I'll be back soon and then we can play. It makes me teary eyed just typing this because I want to see her sweet face looking up at me... ready to come give me her famous puppy kisses.

To think... I was so highly resistant to the notion of having another animal come live in my home.  I already had a dog, Dax, and a cat, Kanika.   Our roommate had his dog too and I felt overwhelmed by the virtual petting zoo that roamed my house.   But Mike was persistent, he had to have a little dog.  I didn't like little dogs.  They barked a lot and he'd let the mangy thing sleep on my bed.  My dog had just started to mellow out, my roommate was moving out, and I was starting to look forward to having fewer furballs underfoot.

Mike's sister picked up Leia from a swapmeet somewhere in California.  Free puppies!  So she took one home, the one that would one day become mine.   Well soon after, she had to move, and decided it was too much trying to keep tabs on such a little puppy with all the boxes that could squash her, as well as her own youngling who was now mobile and had to have a close eye on her too.   It was just too much to keep track off and so it was decided that the puppy should be given to Mike.  

I remember getting a few pictures of the little one sent to my cell phone to show Mike and see if he wanted her.  Remember, I was very very resistant to the idea of another dog, but as soon as I saw her adorable little face for the first time I knew there was nothing I could do to keep her away from my home.   Leia was coming to join my family and that was that.  From those first photos I started falling in love with her.

So Thanksgiving of 2006 and Leia came to live with us.   She went through a bit of a name change because Mike really wanted a little dog named Mimi.   I didn't really like that name but did like Leia.  So for a time she was officially named Mileia and called Mimi for short.   It only took a few nights before I gave in and let her sleep up on the bed with me and Mike.   She hasn't slept off the bed since.  At first she took mostly to Mike and so she'd cuddle up with him when we went to sleep.  But late at night I'd wake up to see her scooting up close to me.  She'd lick my face as if to say "Hey, I'm here next to you. Don't roll over on me."   I'd wake up in the morning to find her sprawled out so she could touch us both. 

Mike was working evenings at that time and so while she was definitely more attached to Mike than me, she'd find herself spending a lot of time with me and we bonded quickly.   So while I was upstairs playing on my computer, or down on the couch playing with my Xbox... there was a little blonde puppy laying next to me and keeping me company.   As long as Mike was away, she was right there wherever I went.

As fate would have it, Mike and I split up a couple of months after Leia came to live with us.   By the end of January Mike was on his way to Vegas and I was quite distraught.  Not only was my relationship over, but this little puppy I'd fallen in love with was going to leave me too.   Well, in Mike's haste to depart, his living situation was a bit up in the air for when he'd arrive in Vegas and I had serious misgivings about subjecting Leia to an unknown and potentially unhealthy environment.  She's very social and had up until that time always had either a person to hang out with, or at the very least Dax and Kanika around to keep her company.  I loathed the notion that she might be left all by herself for considerable chunks of time while Mike was working...   or potentially left where a stranger could mistreat her.   not that these were definite probabilities or anything, but it was certainly a possibility.   So I convinced Mike he should leave Leia with me until he got himself situated and then come back and get her.

While I was quite happy that I got to spend more time with Leia, there was always a lingering sadness that she'd have to go live in Vegas sooner or later.   Try as I might to maintain some distance and protect myself from that inevitability, I just couldn't.   Her sweet puppy eyes pierced right through me and into my heart where she's remained firmly lodged.   Not liking Mimi I reverted to her proper name of Mileia, which I often twisted to be "My" Leia, stressing the Leia part.   I figured this way she'd at least respond to Mike when he called her by name, without having to keep using the name Mimi which I just detested.

When Mike came back for her shortly before my birthday in March, I happened to not be at home at the time.   Part of me wanted to stay away because then I wouldn't have to deal with watching her leave me.   I'd just come home and she'd be gone like she was never there.  I thought it might be easier on me, but I also thought I'd regret not getting to say good bye to her.   Well I finally arrive home and Mike pulls me upstairs cause he wants to talk to me.   I thought it was about us, but instead it was about her.  When he had arrived she came up to him to say hello, but largely ignored him in favor of playing with her packmates, Dax and Kanika.   Mike watched all this and although sad at his decision, decided it was better for her to remain with me where she'd have this constant companionship.  She was happy where she lived and he knew it.  So the talk he wanted to have was to give me the best birthday present ever--Leia was to become my puppy.   By then we had a very strong bond between us, me and Leia.   I was now the one she followed everywhere and the one she cried at the door for everytime I stepped through it without her.  

Now six months later I can't imagine life without her.  Sometimes I think about the what-ifs.. the various calamities that could befall her and take her from me...   or I think about what it will be like in 20 years when she's too old to go on anymore and gives me that last puppy kiss before taking a long long nap.   Such things make me cry almost instantly so I try and keep those thoughts at bay.   I just know it would hit me very hard if I ever lost her, so I spoil her and keep her safe.  At times I think I'm being overly protective as she's a dog and wants to do dog things and I don't like to let her do dog things when dog things put her in danger.    I guess that's what being a good parent is all about.  I just detest having to deny her anything she wants.

This has been a bit of a roller-coaster year for me and Leia has been along for the ride.  I swear when things have been at their darkest, she's the ray of sunshine that keeps me going.   I owe a lot to her for keeping my sanity.   Whenever i'm feeling unhappy, just thinking of her makes me smile.   She has really stolen my heart.   She's made my world a happier place and I'll forever be thankful that she came into it.   Even when she's misbehaved I can't help but smile at her.  No other dog gets free reign to lick me, let alone lick my face.  Puppy kisses I just can't get enough of.

So here I am at her first birthday, something she knows nothing about, and all I can think about is how I can make her know its her special day.   She'll just be happy that I won't be leaving her behind to go to work, that she can run amok all day with me there.   I want to do something extra special for her though.   For being my faithful counselor she deserves it.   My forever puppy...   she may get older, but she'll never get bigger, and she'll never be loved more than she is by me.

Life at Deep Sparks Three is quite messy... We've got crap strung from one end of the house to the other, all related to the Dark Holiday.   A transformation is underway to make it festive.  You know, the kind of transformation I get told I should do professionally...  Which I think would be an awesome job, but its very hard work and I'd need a team of highly trained cobwebbers to pull it off.

I have a lot of lights.   About 200 feet of rope light already placed and maybe another 50 or so to go.  :)   And then there are those christmas-styled lights getting hung too.

But the Tree of Terror has been erected.  Time to start decorating it too!

there is no cory. he is a jack ass. if you have followed my myspace you know why. it still hurts inside what he did... but i'm coping and for the most part doing okay. no one need be worried about me anymore.

so back to single hood. i'm passively hunting. can't say i'm enjoying it... but time is making it more and more fun.

plus i've actually made the aquaintance of what seems to be a few quality guys so I might be having a few new friends out of this.

in other news.. i just got renter's insurance... go me.

Imbolic. It has recently passed. I got a bit of an explanation of what one should be doing for the holiday that my subconcious decided to reiterate to me while I was coming out of the dreamscape this morning....

Essentially the jist is that the seeds I plant today (well, for Imbolic) will bare fruit later in the year.

So the past few days I've found myself highly irritated. Particularly yesterday. Some of it is lonliness. Some of it is frustration. A bit of hurt thrown in for good measure. All cause i was flaked on... again.

But in waking this mornign something in my head reminded me that those particular seeds were planted already. Its too soon for them to have bloomed and I should stop fretting over them and instead put my mind to other things.

It served to lift my spirits today. I'm not as funked out as I was yesterday.

Hallowed are the Ori.

Yesteryear has gone and 2007 replaces it in shining new splendor and glory. I missed the ball drop over Times Square for the first time last night in quite a few years.

This year shall be a year of change. I forsee it. Good change as opposed to bad change, though that is not always immediately evident. While things will definitely change, it may be subtle enough that on the surface, things appear to have remained the same. Deceived be not.

Enjoy the luck 2007 shall surely bring ye.

So the first snowfall (in town anyway) of the new winter season finally happened yesterday. Not quite the "snow of the apocolypse" I had half-hoped for (it would be nice to cripple the town for a few days and get out of having to go to work tomorrow), but alas most of it has melted off the streets today.

At least it was a decent snowstorm. About a 1/4 inch of the whitestuff at my house. (Apocolyptic levels of snow begin at 2 feet.)

In other news, I picked up Star Trek Legacy yesterday for the Xbox 360 and beat it (on the default difficulty i might add) just a bit ago. It is my favorite Star Trek videogame of all time... but alas is much shorter than I thought it should be, particularly for something that was supposed to span all five series. I think if they had dedicated as much time to the TNG eras as they did Enterprise and the Original series it would have been better. It would have been nice to start it out with Picard and crew on the Enterprise D for several missions (as opposed to the one) and then move on and do some missions as Sisko on the Defiant. Next we could cut to the Delta Quadrant and have some missions continuining the overarching story with Janeway and Voyager. Since Voyager would have been all on its own, it could have either been easier missions suitable to a solo vessel, or... could have incorporated allie's Janeway might have out in the Delta Quadrant... Voyager lends a hand to some aliens who join up in her "fleet." Then we could return to the Alpha Quadrant only now its Picard and crew on the Enterprise - E.

Oh well. It was still great fun. Next I will play through it on easy because i have an achievement I can only unlock by beating it in easy mode.... Hopefully I can score some of the more difficult achievements I missed the first time (like surviving all missions without losing a single ship... i managed in all eras but TOS the first time round). Then I get to rinse and repeat in the hardest difficulty.

The multi-play on this thing will keep me engaged (pardon the pun) for some time I think. I finally have a game that makes me want to get online and play some matches. I've one one and lost one already. :) Them Defiant class ships are tough. I'm glad they stand up to expectations in this game, unlike some other games I've played that particular ship in.

Well, I am now off to pick up some books.

Live long and prosper, frolicking gayling in the snow.

Guys, I am at a total loss here on how to fix this totally unacceptable life-situation.

I currently have three other people living in my house, yet am still paying over 1/2 of the rent and (we'll see how this month goes) 100% of the utilities with a trickle of money coming in to repay me for utility bills going back to August of this year.

It's December first. I've received a grand total of $325 from my three roommates. Well, actually that came from teh two new, and temporary ones. The one that is a permanent resident is pennyless come rent day again.

The permanent resident is my boyfriend whom I am trying really hard to be supportive of in getting his finances back together. Clearly I did this to myself letting him go by 7 months where I totally and completely supported him. I guess somewhere along the way he forgot all the financial obligations one has in maintaining a place to live.

I've been told its asking a bit much to expect he pay 1/2 the rent AND 1/2 the utilities. I thought for utilities we could work it out a bit easier for him whereby I just pay it and he repays me his share in the way of food. He's a waiter. He gets tips daily and discoutns on grub. So my thinking was, its not terribly bad if I don't have any money left over because I can rely on him to use his daily tip income to feed me.

Well, that's not working out at all. He's giving me receipts for what he's spending, and then thinking that all of that goes towards his bills. What I eat does, what he eats, is his half of our eating costs.

Furthermore, he's several months behind so this food for bills money is going towards all the past due stuff he owes me. What's happening is his monthly charges are exceeding his monthly payments and he is living in deficit.

I have to pick up the shortfall or face the consequences of not having things like electricity, cable, water, or even a house to live in.

This is putting extreme strain on my finances. I'm going back into a state of crippling debt which I just bailed myself out of a few months ago by pulling half the money out of my retirement savings.

So my immediate- and far-future ability to support myself is under serious threat. I can not sustain this.

The response I got was "when it becomes a problem, i'll just move out."

Well, how does that resolve anything for me? It becomes a problem to me when I find myself in a situation that I have to choose between what gets paid each month and what services I will have to go without as a result.

If I only pay my share of the utiltities, they will be shut off and I will be without power, heat, or water.

If I only pay my share of the rent, I will be evicted and homeless.


So I don't know what to do.

Because if I make a big issue out of it, my relationship is likely to also come to an end over it. His attitude will be to move out and leave me high and dry. That will of course create animosity within me towards him. That animosity will erode the love and the relationship will suffer.

Not to mention my ex-ex boyfriend Thayer has left me with an ongoing legacy with the power company in that I sitll owe them more than I can readily pay them before I could get electricity restored in my own name. We're talking in the ball park of 900 with what I still owe to them plus the inevitable deposit.

I understand that what my boyfriend makes and what he owes leaves him in a very uncomfortable financial situtation. Really he needs to find a better-paying line of work if he wants to live where we're living.

This would be easier if I didn't have to deal with things like not being able to get electricity in my name.... and needing some fairly expensive car maintenance to prevent extremely expensive car repair. I can't blame my car. Its at 70K and it just needs its just going through normal wear and tear... but i'm finding myself unable to provide it prompt and adequate care because I'm always stuck financing other people's financial obligations which they simply don't seem to care enough about to make good on.


Aurgh. At least i have one friend willing to put his own good name and credit on the line to offer me a way out of this mess.

Seriously though... if you have any ideas on how to fix this and save my relationship... please help!

This makes me so darn happy I have to write about it twice... here and on MySpace.

The neighbor that I loathe....

The one that I actively hate...

He whom I curse...

has placed a for sale sign on his house (well, moreso on his lawn than the house)!!!!!!


This war will soon be over.

Hallowed ARE the Ori!

This is my first mobile posting to my LiveJournal. It's pretty neat I guess. Hallowed are the Ori!

So I woke up today with a nasty headache that just recently went away... The sad part is remembering waking up during the night with the headache... so its been going on for quite sometime.

It must have been a migrane cause the ibuprofen did little to help but the Zomig zapped it right out. I love my Zomig.

So yay.. Tonight is Galactica's return to Sci Fi Friday. I'm so fracking excited I could pee myself. Okay, not really, but i'm fracking excited!

Less than a week til Galactica!!!!

October Fracking Indeed.

The dark holiday is upon us!

If you've been following me on MySpace (www.myspace.com/stryse) then you probably already know I started the annual Hall Decking mid-September.

I'd like to formally welcome MumRa to the fold. He's a six-foot tall Mummy that lights up and groans at me. I intend to find him a red cloak and Rory thinks we should erect a sarcophagus for him. He's so big and well, fits with my slowly growing Egyptian motiff that I figure he will stay up year round.

MIA is Spawn. Spawn, please report to DS3 for Samhain duties.

In celebration of the 8th year of Radcliffe (and actually having money left over after paying rent for a change) I have finally gotten around to registering the great Church its very own web domain... complete with website (albeit practically empty) and email! So uh, check it out. Its now my featured link on LiveJournal.

Who wants a RadcliffeULC.org email addy? Huh? You? Sorry... Email accounts are restricted to Radcliffe Clergy and Assorted Staff only.

hmm. so i just found an email from my friend tim who tracked me down on myspace. fancy that. now i dont even need to leave the house to accidentally bump into long lost friends.

I've been saying this for years. Now science backs me up. Yay.

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/060501_mm_traffic_jams.html

The so-called “Culture War” in America boils down to one thing--Beliefs--My beliefs versus your beliefs. America is divided not on social issues, but on personal beliefs and how those beliefs should be applied to social issues. Beliefs and the application of beliefs to our laws is the underlying issue behind all the social issues we are facing as a society. Americans hold very strong beliefs on these issues, regardless of which side they fall on. The challenge is to somehow reconcile those beliefs into public policy that will truly benefit Americans. To do this we need to be completely honest with ourselves and look deeply at social issues to identify the real problems needing to be addressed, and the ramifications of our solutions.

There are two issues today that, more than any other, illustrate this division: Abortion and Same-Sex marriage, it is our personal beliefs that are making these divisive issues in the first place. Opponents to both issues have presented arguments that, despite the smoke and mirrors that our representatives and special interest groups put up to cloud the issue, are based only on personal beliefs.

Unfortunately, Congress and the President have utterly failed to do their job in presenting the real picture on these issues, and what the real implications of them are to society one way or the other. There is little to no foresight being applied in deciding these issues. These are very serious issues with very serious consequences and it is extremely important that both our elected representatives as well as our citizenship as a whole take a step back and approach these not with impassioned beliefs, but with a level-head and open mind.

I have not spent a great deal of time reviewing census data, but I will concede that the majority of the American people are Christian. The values and morals of the Christian religion as a whole are deeply engrained in American society—I will concede this as well. Indeed, even amongst non-Christians, the same basic morals and values are adhered too. The fundamentals of these morals and values are, in fact, shared amongst many religions around the planet. There is, however, a minority of Americans who do not share those same beliefs. That is our great dilemma in society.

It is time that we as a nation asked the right question. For the entire history of our current system of government, as established by the Constitution of the United States, the system has been designed such that the rights of the minority would be protected from popular opinion. This is most evident in the process of amending the Constitution and the very stringent requirements that a majority rule is insufficient. The intent of our forefathers, as best as I can interpret, was that belief--no matter how wide-spread--would not infringe upon those inalienable rights of citizens who did not share in that belief. The question we as a nation must address before we tackle the issue of abortion or same-sex marriage or anything of the like is this: Do we still want the rights of the minority to be protected from the beliefs of the majority? Put another way, do we want to institutionalize Christian belief in our government?

Personally, I feel very strongly that my belief is no more or less important than that of any other American, whether they be a private citizen, or a public official. It is therefore of great concern to me when the people I helped elect into office are voting on legislation not on the facts, not on logic, and not on reason, but instead are voting based on their own personal belief.

What is a belief? What makes it different from a fact? A fact is something that holds true 100% of the time for 100% of the people whether they choose to believe and acknowledge it or not. The world is round. People come in different shapes, sizes and colors. The sky appears blue to the naked eye. These are all facts. Whether you want to believe the world is round or not, the Earth does not change its shape to accommodate your belief that it is flat.

Beliefs, on the other hand, do not hold true 100% of the time for 100% of the people. They hold true only for those who share in that belief. Therein lies the fault of our representatives—and our people--applying their beliefs to the issues we face as a society. Our society needs to work for everyone, not just those who share the majority belief. In the past, when society didn't work for everyone, the minority would simply move to new frontiers and establish colonial societies based on their then-majority beliefs. We've expanded into virtually every inhabitable environment on Earth and no longer have that luxury. We are now forced to deal with our issues rather than run from them. Until we are colonizing other worlds, this will remain true.

Belief systems by there very natures are inherently illogical. They each require an initial leap of faith because that is the only way you can apply logic to the rest of the belief system. Once you make the leap of faith that God exists and that the bible is his word alone, then everything else about it logically makes sense. Logically we should condemn abortions and homosexuality because the bible—God’s word--says we should. If you don’t have that faith, however, such requirements immediately become illogical and unreasonable to you.

Anyone elected to public office in a capacity where they are creating the laws by which the American people must conduct themselves must therefore, logically, check their beliefs at the doors of their offices. Personal beliefs can’t weigh into the decision making because it is impossible for any lawmaker to reconcile the opposing beliefs of their constituencies. Rarely is there a solution that will satisfy the beliefs of everyone when they’re divided along belief in the first place. Never in history has every citizen in any country believed exactly the same thing. The single most important social issue facing America is not being discussed at all. How much should our personal beliefs should shape public policy? Unfortuantly I do not feel that the Constitution goes far enough in answering this question for us. What might seem clearly spelled out in that document is still hotly debated in this country. Clearly it must be better defined if we are to move forward in a responsible way.

So before we start addressing these social issues where Americans are divided based on their personal beliefs, we need to first decide what we want our society to be governed by. Is it belief, or do we want our society governed by logic and reason? Simply put, do we as a people really want a secular society and government? Before we can adequately address the social issues before us today we need to make that decision first.

There are plenty of examples of secular societies throughout the world. The Middle East is currently the focus of the world and where our nation is most currently involved. We’re fighting a war on terror and spreading democracy throughout the Middle East because we believe in freedom and liberty and secular societies are inherently lacking in both freedom and liberty. In a secular state, you’re only free within the confines of the belief system ruling that nation.

This makes it particularly dangerous in how we proceed domestically in our own social issues. It is quite interesting that we state we are spreading freedom throughout the world while at the same time working to undermine the very freedom we’re using as the model for the rest of the world by making beliefs law.

I hear quite a bit from elected officials about the will of the American people. I sincerely question just how much of what is being said reflects the true will of the American people as a whole, versus the will of a few well-funded, organized, and vocal special-interest groups. I don’t here very much of the will of this American being reflected. I can only conclude that I am either in a major minority in wanting a society where every American is treated fairly and equally under the law regardless of their beliefs, or the elected officials, and perhaps the American people as a whole, are grossly ignorant on what is really at stake for our country.

The very liberty we’re trying to deliver to other parts of the world is under attack because the legislatures across our country are caving into the pressures of groups whose goals and agendas ultimately lead to the indoctrination of a secular mindset in government. That is not to say their stated intentions are to impose secular rule on America, but that is the end result if we allow beliefs, no matter how many Americans subscribe to those beliefs, to shape public policy.

Congress needs to cease its usual short-sighted approach to resolving social issues and return to the early days of American government in which we seriously debated all the ramifications of our policy decisions. If no such glory-days existed in our history, now is the time we should have them. A great deal of foresight needs to be applied in understanding what the implications of our policy decisions will be not just for the next generation of Americans, but many generations from now. Our forefathers had enough foresight to craft a system of government that has survived mostly unchanged for over 200 years. Congress must stop fooling itself in thinking they are fixing the problems Americans face by ignoring inconvenient realities and misleading the population with fallacious reasoning and inaccurate "facts". Any elected official lacking the intelligence to not only comprehend what the actual issue is, but also lacks the ability to express what the actual issue is in public debate, should immediately resign from their position. We must dive very deeply into the social issues to understand the real problem, not the symptoms of that problem.

We will set very dangerous precedents for generations to come if we prohibit things like abortion or same-sex marriage because we allowed the belief systems of Americans, even a majority, to be the sole basis of our public policy. The moment we allow beliefs to become law, we have ceased to be a truly free society. The moment we allow beliefs to become law, we have turned into the very kind of society we are supposedly sacrificing American lives to spread liberty too.

I do not personally advocate creating a secular society based on Christian ideals. I share in many of those ideals, but even Christianity itself can not reach agreement on them all. Nevertheless, there does seem to be a growing sentiment within public debate that we should institutionalize Christian ideals into our government. We must therefore table all other social debates and focus solely on that issue… secularization of our society. Once that has been decided, that decision can guide us in resolving all the other issues facing our nation.

I think it is time that we convene a new Constitutional Convention to address that very issue—not to draft a new Constitution, but rather to arrive at a second Bill of Rights that will define the principles that will guide us through the next 200 years. As we face the social issues in America in the 21st century, we need guiding principles to shape public policy that reflect the realities of today’s society.

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This shall be strongly recommended reading for the congregation:

American Gospel:God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation; by Jon Meacham