Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (above photo) said that the real way for Americans to address racism is to "accept Jesus Christ," saying that "we need a culture change," which requires a character change, which requires a change of heart, which requires one to turn to God.
"You cannot love your fellow man if you don't love God," Patrick said. "And we have a country where we've been working really hard, particularly on the left, to kick God out."
Patrick said:
"For me, as I look at this, and it breaks my heart, what I'm seeing — from the original crime that was committed by the police officer on George Floyd to what's happening in our streets. We have racism in this country, Shannon, but it's really an issue of love. It's loving God — you cannot love your fellow man if you don't love God. And we have a country where we've been working really hard, particularly on the left, to kick God out.
We need a culture change to address this racism. You cannot change the culture of a country until you change the character of mankind, and you can't change that unless you change the heart. And for billions of us on the planet, we believe you can't do that unless you accept Jesus Christ or unless you accept God. God has been left out of this equation through all of this and we need tremendous healing. We cannot heal through commissions and blue-ribbon panels and more laws. We can only heal ourselves if we really reach out and love one another."
So once again, unless your a Christian there’s no way we can be good, responsible, caring people.
Non believers are accused of having no morals because we don't subscribe to the traditional dogma preached from pulpits.
We believe that indoctrination of religions in general doesn’t make anyone special or better.
One thing that we disagree with is the assertion that the Bible is a good example of morality.
Let’s be truthful, the Bible is full of ‘holy’ actions that are absolutely counter to any sense of moral behavior.
If we really want to be morally upstanding people, it's our obligation to thoughtfully consider how our actions might affect others, the earth and ourselves.
This is what ethical and moral people do, that's how we learn.
Discouraging the ‘thinking’ part in decision making and blindly following the ‘ethics’ of a religious doctrine leads to many of the destructive actions that are common today.
So how do we know what's right and wrong?
How do we figure out the morality/ethics question?
When we make decisions, we need to take a good look how those decisions and actions have influenced our lives and that of those around us.
We decide if it was the right thing to do, or if we need to make changes.
Through experience and education we learn, develop and become better people.
As Pagans, regardless how you practice, we can agree on the Wiccan Rede: 'An it harm none, do what ye will'.
For us it's an affirmation of our freedom to act, combined with the requirement of taking responsibility for our actions.
Faith and belief can move mountains.
Meaning, faith in your own abilities, in the person you want to become, with that, we would agree.
But sermons on faith usually have little to do with self empowerment.
Telling us that a higher power is in complete control is difficult to understand, where does that leave us?
How do we grow or get stronger if we think someone or something is to to carry us every time we experience life's struggles?
How do we personally improve if we are incapable of knowing good from evil without some higher power pulling the strings?
