separation of church and state.....

ok, so i heard a oneofakind sermon today at church.....one that could only come from a substitute pastor.......as few pastors who want to settle into their jobs would dare give such a rousing 17 minute rant on the history of the baptists, beginning with the anabaptists....and the notion that at the time of the reformation......the anabaptists differed from the calvinists and the lutherans on the issue of baptism......that one could only be truly baptised when one could make that decision personally, rather than by parental decision soon after birth..they also believed in the preisthood fo the believer..that all men and women may stand in front of god/commune with god on their own, without the need of an intermediary, like a priest, to speak for them.....and so they were persecuted....imprisoned, burned, etc........and tossed out of most of the colonies except for rhode island......which offered relgious freedoms that original colonies like mass, va, etc did not.....puritans may have left england for religious freedom, but they thought everybody else ought to do things their way when they became top dogs........which brings us to now.....when the folks in power think that everybody else ought to do things their way now that they are top dogs...this preacher actually used the phrase.......opportinistic politicians...to describe those in congress and the white house who would tack the 10 commandments up on the courthouse walls if it will get them more votes, not because it is historically correct .......forgetting that baptists like a reverand leland in virginia convinced thomas jefferson of the need to specifiy religion as separate from government so as to keep the minority free to worship as they saw fit.....the baptists at the time were in the minority.....and now that they see themselves as powerful enought to flex their muscle.,.......well,, they seem to have forgotten at what sacrifice they got to this very moment........i must add that this fellow is a phd trained theologian and retired pastor from texas who lives in danville and has started a moderate seminary in lexington.........it was one of the more moving sermons for pure affirmation of my personal belief system that i could have ever wished for......and i told him so when i shook his hand afterwards......folks this courageous need positive feedback......a rampantly conservative fellow that runs sits behind us with his family....he is the kind of fellow who believes in creationism,.....and doubts the theory of evolution.......he and my spouse were deep in debate as we were leaving....at least he got to hear some hard, historical fact, rather than theory....about where we have come, so we know where we should go.....as a church...and as a nation