I am, myself, a very religious person. I am also an American.

One of the most valuable things about America is that a person is free to practice any religion he chooses, whether it is an organized religion or personal beliefs between an individual and his Creator--or any other way he or she wishes to express it--so long as it is not harmful to others.

One of the founding principles of this country is that the State does not control religion. Neither does religion control the state.

With a bit of experience (several years of experience with several different organized religions), I can say that I do not care to participate in any organized religion, because from my point of view, all of them are simply political organizations attempting to impose their views on everyone else.

However, I would like you to look at the following two blogs. We have elected a President who is perhaps a bit too "understanding" of a religion whose precepts include that non-believers can be slaughtered (as happened throughout southern Europe and the Middle East during the period from 1200 AD until about 1500 AD, and again several times throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries).

Perhaps ONE OF the most valuable things about the United States is that a person in this country is free to practice his own religious beliefs.

Unfortunately, this means that it is possible for a particular religion, when too well established, could take over the entire country and, by following its own precepts, forbid the practice of any other religion. That is what is happening now.

I am willing for anyone to be able to practice their own religious beliefs, except in one circumstance: when those religious beliefs involve COMPELLING others to adopt that religion on pain of death, or promoting that religion through killing other people, or otherwise forcing others into religious beliefs other than their own.

Please see the following two entries: one is a speech from a respected person in the Netherlands. The other is excerpts from speeches from our current President.

I admit, right here, that I have only seen these excerpts, not the full speeches. However, I believe that this number of points brought by our current President are indicative of a religious bias that is far beyond anything he should be saying or promoting, as the President of a country that guarantees freedom of religious belief and practice as a part of its Constitution.

Some of what he says is very true, but it has little to do, in fact, with the RELIGION of Islam. The CULTURE preserved learning during the Dark Ages in Europe: the people who developed many of these ideas were persecuted in Islam in exactly the same way that learned men were persecuted by the Catholic Church.

Please remember, some of the tenets of certain sects of Islam include the right of Muslims to compel others to adopt the beliefs on pain of death.

Please view the following two blogs.

Thank you for your attention. Jim