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   XPost: talk.atheism   
   From: gashcroft@atcu.org   
      
   In article    
   Joe Cooper  wrote:   
   >   
   > America was a different country in the 1800s.   
   >   
   > It was a country in which Joseph, Samuel, and William Bancroft of   
   > Wilmington, Delaware, were free to put their Quaker faith into practice;   
   > not just by worshipping in their churches, but by shaping their   
   > businesses and their philanthropies according to the principles of their   
   > faith. They were devout Christian men who did good things. Their faith   
   > was intertwined inextricably with every aspect of their lives.   
   >   
   > The Bancrofts’ faith became a legacy.   
   >   
   > Today, joggers and dog walkers at Wilmington’s Rockford Park, with its   
   > ancient oak trees and winding roads, go by the plaque commemorating the   
   > Bancroft who gave his farm to the city for public use. William Bancroft   
   > called on William Law Olmstead, who planned New York City’s Central Park,   
   > to design picturesque parks. Guided by the principle of the brotherhood   
   > of mankind, Bancroft provided city dwellers from all stations of life   
   > scenic open spaces to enjoy.   
   >   
   > The now abandoned Bancroft Mills was by 1930 one of the biggest cotton   
   > finishing mills in the world and a model of good employer/employee   
   > relations. Manager Samuel Bancroft regarded employees as extended family   
   > and treated them accordingly.   
   >   
   > As time goes by, most legacies prove written in water.   
   >   
   > So it is with the Bancroft legacy, which has quietly faded into the   
   > background of Delaware’s history.  But the Bancroft family would have   
   > wanted it that way, as modesty was a virtue prized by their Quaker faith,   
   > as were Christian family and civic virtues.   
   >   
   > One of the Quakers’ staunchest beliefs was that the authority of the   
   > state never took precedence over the authority of the individual   
   > conscience before God. The Quaker belief in the inner guiding light of   
   > Christ was so strong that they would not take any oath of allegiance to   
   > the state, nor would they bow to any demand of the state that interfered   
   > with their religious practices.   
   >   
   > At the time, the U.S. government generally respected Quakers and others’   
   > religious convictions, leaving believers of all faiths the freedom to   
   > follow their God and their consciences. There was a strong belief in   
   > freedom of religion as a right transcending the dictates of the state.   
   >   
   > We live in a different America today.   
   >   
   > We now live in a country in which the Bancroft family would be excoriated   
   > for their faith and viewed suspiciously for their Christian principles   
   > and virtues.  Seldom in the history of the United States have Christians   
   > and others of faith been under more pressure to bend to the power of the   
   > almighty state, not just in business practices, but in their personal   
   > walk with God.   
   >   
   > One need only think of the confusion and dismay Samuel Bancroft would   
   > feel were he Hobby Lobby’s CEO David Green, whose objections of   
   > conscience to the Affordable Care Act caused a legal firestorm that   
   > eventually landed in the Supreme Court.   
   >   
   > Over decades of hard work, Green achieved the American Dream, seeing his   
   > company grow from an enterprise begun in his living room in 1972 to a   
   > nationwide chain of some 575 stores today. All the while, Green has   
   > remained true to the dictates of his conscience -- much like the Bancroft   
   > family before him.   
   >   
   > A devout Pentecostal, Green attributes the growth of his company to the   
   > fact he based Hobby Lobby’s operations on biblical principles.  Hobby   
   > Lobby stores are closed on Sundays in order families have time to rest   
   > and worship.  Green has stated, “We’re Christians, and we run our   
   > business on Christian principles.”   
   >   
   > Those principles include paying the business’s 22,000 workers fairly --   
   > twice the minimum wage for full time workers. "As a family-owned   
   > business, we want our employees to feel like they are part of a family,"   
   > said Green, echoing the sentiments of Samuel Bancroft.   
   >   
   > According to an interview with Forbes magazine author Brian Solomon,   
   > Green also believes that faith is not really faith unless it’s put into   
   > practice in his business and in everyday life. "I don’t care if you’re in   
   > business or out of business, God owns it. How do I separate it? Well,   
   > it's God's in church and it's mine here? I have purpose in church, but I   
   > don't have purpose over here? You can't have a belief system on Sunday   
   > and not live it the other six days."   
   >   
   > In the above statement lies the reason Green filed suit against an   
   > overweening federal government which told him, his inner light of   
   > Christian conscience or no, that Hobby Lobby had to provide its employees   
   > with insurance that included the abortifacient, “the morning after pill.”   
   >   
   > Green balked, taking a public stance against the Patient Protection and   
   > Affordable Care Act and filing a lawsuit against the United States that   
   > stated, "The Green family's religious beliefs forbid them from   
   > participating in, providing access to, paying for, training others to   
   > engage in, or otherwise supporting abortion-causing drugs and devices."   
   >   
   > Hobby Lobby argued that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment   
   > to the United States Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration   
   > Act were safeguards allowing the protection of their religious beliefs.   
   >   
   > The fierce controversy that rose because of Green’s refusal to capitulate   
   > to the demands of the Left saw Green and Hobby Lobby vilified and   
   > castigated in ways the humble Bancrofts never could have imagined.   
   >   
   > Even the decision of SCOTUS concerning the ACA’s insurance mandate has   
   > not stopped the Left from targeting Hobby Lobby.   
   >   
   > The latest suit against the company concerns the “rights” of a biological   
   > male transgender going by the name of Meggan Sommerville. Sommerville   
   > wants to use the women's restroom at work. Hobby Lobby requires that   
   > he/she use the men's restroom until completing sex reassignment surgery.   
   > Sommerville has sued, citing discrimination, as his/her inner light has   
   > determined he/she is female.   
   >   
   > As the new case reveals, the Quaker concept of the inner light has for   
   > radical liberals come to mean that only those on the extreme Left have an   
   > inner light that is infallible. It follows the State is to be the   
   > enforcer of that infallible knowledge of the rightness of the latest   
   > tenets of the liberal agenda, Christian or other consciences be damned.   
   >   
   > For the Left, if Hobby Lobby or any other business run according to   
   > religious principles -- Chick Fil-A comes to mind -- opposes liberal   
   > dictates, it does not deserve the right to exist. It has no right to   
   > practice a faith diametrically opposed to current Leftist doctrines.   
   > Therefore, it should be trampled into the dust.   
   >   
   > One cannot help but suspect the reason the Left continues to attempt   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)