The Craft Fair

This weekend was the Annual Craft Fair. There were hundreds of booths with crafters and dealers from all over the country. It's always on the first Friday and Saturday in August, so we all know it's going to be either very hot, very wet, or both. This year was hot. As we wandered through the various booths we could hear the singing going on from the stage set in the middle of the town square; gospel, country, and bluegrass. Sitting and standing on the square, under the trees (if they could fit), was a large crowd of visitors and a sprinkling of locals.
My wife and I stopped under a tree to escape the heat for a moment and stayed to listen to one group singing some wonderful gospel songs. They proclaimed their love for God and for Jesus in song and spoken words. It was really nice to see someone unashamedly standing up for what they believe.
What struck me was with all those people sitting and standing around, none of them protested the idea of publicly proclaiming the glory of God. It reminded me of the first Christmas we lived here. Our son was in middle school, and we went to the Christmas program at the school. The principle came out to open the program carrying a Bible. He opened it to the gospel of Luke and read the story of that first Christmas. I turned to my wife and asked if he knew that was against the law. It turned out he didn't care, and no one in the auditorium cared, either. The local football and basketball games always opened with a prayer for the safety of the players. Even after 20 years here, nothing has changed, and I love it.
There is nothing coercive about a prayer, or the Bible stories, or the words "in God we trust." What these things do is assert the feelings of the majority of our population. The foundation of our country has been built on a belief in God and the freedom to worship Him in any way that you choose. We even allow those that don't believe in God to worship their own deities; self, money, trees, Gaia, or whatever. However, it seems that they object to us worshipping as we please. We allow the minority to control the majority, because we who do believe in God seem to be embarrassed to state it in public. That is why it was so refreshing to see a musical group singing and praising God in a public square.