The slippery slope?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13031397


France bans the Islamic veil how long until it bans other forms of religious dress? Surely it's a slippery slope until it is illegal to wear even small tokens of faith such as a necklace or bracelet?

And what's to stop them eventually banning public worship? or buildings? Will religion go back to what it used to be, underground and counter-cultural? would that actually be a bad thing? The problems with the "main" religions  come from their institutionalisation by the state and their enforced universal codes.

However this is not the time to discuss the benefits of underground religion, it is more the time to discuss freedom of expression of faith. how long before they don't just ban religious icons but political or sport or music and TV icons in case of offending anyone? if it time to bring in state uniforms?

Didn't the Nazis ban Jewish forms of dress? and we all know how that ended.

When all is said and done.....

I feel compelled to write some, so I thought I'd discuss something I've been thinking about for a while.


One of my favourite bands, Napalm Death, have a song called "When all is Said and Done" in which the chorus speaks to me and I believe offers up some Christian wisdom for people living their busy lives that don't necessarily have time to worship actively, either by themselves in quite contemplation or in a group at church. 
The band themselves don;t have faith (as far as I know) the lead singer in fact preaches against religion on stage, and this particular song is actually an anti-religious one, so the idea that I'm using it for Christian contemplation would probably make his skin crawl.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIRUzqHTNh8


The particular chorus I am talking about goes 


"When all is said and done
Heaven lies in my heart
No slave to beliefs that propagate pain
When all is said and done
Heaven lies in our hearts
This life is a gift to be lived and loved"

The gist of the chorus is at the end of the day it doesn't matter what you do, believe or say The Kingdom of Heaven is in our hearts, Jesus himself says this in Luke 17.21.

The Kingdom of God is not something to look forward to or to be waited for it is already in the hearts and minds of people who do God's work here on earth. 

Unfortunately, as the next line refers to, many people have used their beliefs to justify causing great pain and suffering to others on this world, thus destroying and delaying the Kingdom of God by performing evil deeds rather then God's works of love. So Napalm Death are right to attack slaves to beliefs that cause pain, just as Christians should do as well. We should stand up against those that use faith to justify hatred and evil acts like religious war, homophobia, sexism and other  "religiously justifiable" acts.

"This life is a gift to be lived and loved" once more Barney from Napalm Death exclaims great Christian Wisdom along the same lines as the great Christian theologians. Life on earth is a gift from God, who gives every one life, and through Jesus Christ he also gives us love. It is clear through the teachings of Christ that God intended us to live our life with love and through love do good deeds to one another and once we start living our lives with love the Kingdom of God, that is already present within us, will become more present upon earth.

Although not every ones cup of tea, and despite holding different beliefs to me I have found God's word and Jesus' teaching spread, although unknowingly, through the Music of Napalm Death, and the only way I would have found it was to embrace different (often challenging) ideas to my own and to listen to what they had to say, rather then bury my head in the sand and declare everyone else's views obsolete. When in dialogue with other faiths, it is surprising how many new ways of reading and understanding God's word there are, as well as the many similarities between the faiths that you can find.