Food for thought!

The following (slightly edited, to take out some of the specifically USA references) just came in to my e-mail Inbox. It was apparently read out by a certain Ben Stein - who, I am assuming, is better known in the USA than in the UK! -on "CBS Sunday Morning Commentary".

"My 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 crïeche, 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, period. ...

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should
worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess
that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. ...

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when
Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) 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.'

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. ...

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks
of us. ..."

I know that I have read similar messages before, but I felt that it was worth posting - in case anybody has missed it!