Posted 2/12/2009

WILL THEY GO AFTER VALENTINE'S DAY NEXT?

The secularists (a.k.a. atheists, agnostics) and their power-hungry lawyers have gone after the Pledge of Allegiance, trying to rip God out of the schools. Next, school prayer came under their legal howitzers.

The secularists attempted to blast the Ten Commandments out of our government buildings.

Then they turned on Christianity, shoving creches off the courthouse lawns.

How long will it be before they begin to sue schools for allowing kids to exchange Valentine cards?

Probably only until the day a secular radical discovers that Valentine's Day is named in celebration of a Christian martyr who defied the Emperor of Rome.

Valentine was either a priest or bishop in Rome during the reign of Claudius II, who enjoyed persecuting Christians. In those days, the Roman Senate had made aiding Christians a crime. Valentinus (Latin) was arrested and thrown into prison after he was caught marrying Christian couples. Thus started the imagery of a saintly priest closely associated with love.

Claudius seemed to like Valentinus ... until the priest attempted to convert the emperor to Christianity. Claudius flew off the handle and had Valentinus condemned to death. Despite being beaten unmercifully and savaged by stones, the priest did not die. Finally he was beheaded about 270 A.D. and buried at the Via Flaminia, north of Rome, on February 14.

More than two centuries whizzed by. Christianity grew rapidly as a "house religion," finally emerging as the official religion of the Roman Empire. History records that on February 14, 496 A.D., the Feast of St. Valentine was established by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentinus among those "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God."

Although 20th century Popes downgraded Valentine's Day, first by eliminating the official day of feasting and later the commemoration of universal liturgical veneration, the Saint lives in the hearts of all people who love – especially the young.

St. Valentine, priest of love, has produced a modern-day image illustrated by the symbols "hearts and flowers."

Hearts and flowers. Powerful symbols.

I doubt that the radical secularists and their legal guns can get those banned from schools.

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