Reportedly 15-17,000 demonstrators at the last “No Kings” protest in Colorado Springs on March 28 with not one act of violence. Reportedly 15-17 million demonstrators at 3300 sights across the US on that same day, and no violence by protestors. Wow, the ethical and moral values of the people of the USA are obviously so incredibly good that they deserve profound praise!

Those thousands and millions were not all Christians—many were Jews, Muslims, Traditional Native faiths, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, agnostics, and atheists. The authentic truth of America and the world is that people of many different faiths and of no faith have exceptionally good ethical and moral values and are not bound to one specific sacred scripture or theological position.

As was said by a Christian pastor at “Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment”: “People who insist on the superiority of one religion have lost the meaning of God”. Also stated: “Religion and government power are a terrible mix”.

The founders of this nation thoroughly understood this because King George III was a devout and practicing Anglican and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. They never ever wanted to be ruled by any king ever again, let alone one mixing religion and governance.

This helped motivated them to write into Amendment I: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

While John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people”, he did not specify any one specific religion as the source of that morality, and what he said was not written into the Constitution. Indeed, there is NOT ONE quote from the Bible, and NOT ONE mention of God or Jesus in the Constitution of the United States of America! The wise Founders knew better than to even consider doing that!

The founders were flawed humans, as are we all, yet still they well knew the history of the many religious wars in the many nations, with several actually started by “Christians”. They did not want such wars to ever happen in the new nation they were establishing by the rule of law as proscribed in the constitution. That is why they prohibited the establishment of religion yet permitted the free exercise of religion—thus each free to practice whatever religion or no religion. That is what this retired United Methodist Pastor knows and thinks.

Without debate, doubt, or question there are too many guns with too many bullets in too many hands willing to use them to kill too many others. We hardly ever hear of a good guy with a gun stopping a bad guy with a gun. That is also what I know and think.