My email-alert button rang a few minutes ago that alerted me to a new email titled, "In God we Trust." It was one of those forwarded messages- a message that spreads like a virus throughout the Internet. It read:
Here's your chance to let the media know where the people stand on our faith in God, as a nation. NBC is taking a poll on 'In God We Trust' to stay on our American currency. Please send this to every Christian you know so they can vote on this important subject. Please do it right away, before NBC takes this off the web page.
Naturally I clicked over and read the current figures: 32% said remove it; 67% said keep it. No surprise there- we are a God-fearing nation. The Olympics, of all places, reinforce that. In post-race interviews with several of the American athletes, many black athletes 'thanked God' for their victories. Apparently God took the time to push them forward along the track.
The MSNBC article that spurred the poll is titled, Atheist challenges ‘In God We Trust.' It says, "Michael Newdow seeks to remove “In God We Trust” from U.S. coins and dollar bills, claiming in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that the motto is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion."
No doubt the panties of millions of religious fanatics all across America got tightly knotted at the news of this attempt by 'the atheist' to remove God from our nation's currency. Funny stuff, as always, from that clutch. Odd too that it is on money; what did Jesus think of money?
On my sidebar is this quote from the magazine The Economist:
"It makes no sense in a pluralistic society to give one church special status. Nor does it make sense, in a largely secular country, to give special status to all faiths. The point of democracies is that the public arena is open to all groups—religious, humanist or football fans. The quality of the argument, not the quality of the access to power, is what matters."
The 'religious folks' in this nation, however, think that they ought to have the right to slap 'God' onto coins and other public venues. I find that curious; are they so guilt-ridden, so indoctrinated with fear that they have to make God 'visible' and 'tangible' throughout this nation, because, otherwise God might smite this land? Reminds me of the Roman gods and goddesses that that society erected in their public places.
The other day Obama and McCain appeared on some faith-forum in an evangelical church, pandering for votes. It was shameful. What a farce that these two men, vying for the most powerful political office in the world, were pimping for God-votes. Quite a shameful saga in our history.
How has 'God' shown favor for our nation over other nations? Neither Canada nor Switzerland have 'God' on their coins. The Kuwait's Dinar, however, says, "OobAllah nasteen" which means "We seek God's assistance." That's comforting.
So 'God' favors our 6-year War in Iraq? Our 4,100 dead soldiers? Our recession? Our murder rate? Our poverty? Our unemployment? Our divorce rate?
Sure.
