It's Time for a Talk

By Donald L. Engel

When a person sees his political party going to hell in a hand basket, someone should scream, "Look Out!!" This book is my scream.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483644134

Donald L. Engel

Don was born in 1937, in Seattle, Washington. After graduating from Highline High School in 1955, he spent 2 years in the Navy aboard the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, and 20 years in the Air Force, retiring as a Master Sergeant. He presently lives with his wife, Barbara, in Kelso, Washington spending his time in a large garden, and an even larger yard.

Book preview

IT’S TIME

FOR A TALK

Donald L. Engel

Copyright © 2013 by Donald L. Engel.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013909246

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4836-4412-7

Softcover 978-1-4836-4411-0

Ebook 978-1-4836-4413-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The Official Elephant Logo of the Republican National Committee on the cover of this book was provided courtesy of the Republican National Committee.

Rev. date: 08/26/2013

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

136532

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

INTRODUCTION

1

MORALS

2

ABORTION

3

THE RELIGIONS OF OUR NATION’S FOUNDERS

4

HOMOSEXUALITY

5

I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT!!

6

THE SCOURGE OF RELIGION

7

THE BIBLE VS. SCIENCE

8

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

EPILOGUE

PROLOGUE

I answered a knock at our door one afternoon, and it was two Jehovah’s Witnesses. I explained that I was an Atheist, and wasn’t interested in their literature. Although I was polite, they immediately spun around as if I had slapped them in the face, and scurried down the walk. When I closed the door, I sat down and wondered how they would feel if someone came to their home and tried to hand them literature on Atheism. It made me stop and think about how religion was trying to guide and govern our lives. Then I thought about all the problems concerning abortion, prayer in school, religious statues on government land, The Ten Commandments depicted on the Justice Building, homosexual rights, the Evangelists trying to wedge their way into politics, and all the rest of it that we’ve heard and read so much about lately. I think it is about time that we sit down and talk in a sane, sensible manner about some of these ideas. This is my attempt to start the conversation. This book describes my thoughts, and how I came to think this way.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I want to thank a close friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, for his willingness to help me in writing this work by spending untold hours editing and keeping me on track, even though he does not subscribe to many of the ideas expressed herein.

Thanks, Art.

INTRODUCTION

When I was 17, my paternal grandmother passed away at the age of 63 from a stroke. She was the most devout Catholic I’ve ever known. She went to morning and evening Mass every day, walking about a half mile each way to get there, rain, shine, or snow. She always had a rosary in her hand, and was constantly saying her Hail Marys. She had the crucifix on her walls in every room, along with candles, pictures of Jesus, and Mother Mary. Her husband was put in a mental institution when my dad was very young, so she had to raise 5 children on her own at a time when women didn’t work. If I remember correctly, the last job she had was working in a potato chip plant, but I don’t know what she did other than I know it wasn’t an office job. She was a very hard worker, and once her children were raised she put her money into buying a boarding house. She continued working, and by combining her wages with the money she made from boarders, at the time of her death, she was able to give a house to each of her children.

My aunt would call her every morning just about the time she got home from Mass to make sure she was okay. One morning she called and there was no answer. She waited a while and called again, and still no answer, so she called the priest at the church. He hadn’t seen her at mass that morning, and was wondering why. Then my aunt called grandma’s neighbor and asked her to check on grandma. The neighbor found grandma passed out on the kitchen floor, called for an ambulance, and then called my aunt and told her what she found.

By seeing the evidence, it was determined that she had had a stroke the day before, and it looked like it happened just after my aunt had talked to her. That means that she had lain on the cold kitchen floor for over 24 hours with no way to communicate her plight. She died in the hospital two days later without ever regaining full consciousness.

Although I believed in God at the time, I didn’t go to church. I had gone to Catholic school during the fall semester of the third grade, but then we moved and from then on it was only public schools. But it really bothered me that here was the most religious person I’d ever met, and not just because she went to church every day, but she lived the Christian life every minute of the waking day, and God had let her lay on that cold floor for 24 hours with no way to communicate. Of course I’m older now, and I realize that compared to what other people who are just as faithful have endured, laying on a cold floor for 24 hours is minor. But at the time, it struck me as a lousy way to treat someone that spent her entire life adoring her God!! Where is the