gillbrooks opened this issue on Jun 22, 2006 · 65 posts
PJF posted Fri, 23 June 2006 at 7:16 PM
Essay alert!
Quote - ...but we are talking about a day and age where the word "God" has been omitted from the the Pledge of Allegiance and the term "In God We Trust" is removed from our currency.
These things have not happened but if they ever do, the government of the United States of America will revert more closely to the secular principles of the time of its founding - a "day and age" when religious statements would have been considered impertinent to Federal matters; and when an official pledge of allegiance was more than a century and a half away.
This is not to say that the Founders were irreligious (far from it); they simply felt strongly that there should be no religious remit for the Federal government (such things best being left to individual States). That's why there is a specific clause in the First Amendment stating that there will be no Federal establishment of religion, or prohibition of religion. The focus of the Founders was on the union, and not surprisingly the national motto adopted was "E Pluribus Unum" (Out of Many, One).
From then on throughout American history there has been lobbying by religious groups and groupings to change the nature of the national government from secular to religious. There is a pattern to their so far limited success.
"IN GOD WE TRUST" was not added to US coinage until 1864. The troubled era of the Civil War led to an increase in popular religious sentiment, and enough pressure was applied to the (fairly willing) Congress to introduce religion to the affairs of the Federal government.
"IN GOD WE TRUST" was not added to US banknotes until 1957, after Congress decided to adopt this phrase as the national motto in place of "E Pluribus Unum". Again it was at a time of existential crisis for the US, when divine providence no doubt seemed a more useful ally in the face of atheistic Communism than did the First Amendment.
It was also in this era, not surprisingly, that mention of God was first inserted into the previously secular Pledge of Allegiance. The original wording, from 1892, was:
It’s interesting to note that the Pledge of Allegiance did not become official US government policy until 1942, the era of another existential crisis. Congress adopted slightly revised wording (pointing out which flag) and dropped the accompanying right arm salute (!) in favour of the hand on heart posture.
The author of the original 1892 pledge was a Christian Socialist, which fact points rather nicely, I think, to the folly of the diversion from the secular roots of the Federal government. In Massachusetts today, an atheist teacher in a state school can be fined five dollars a day for not leading the students in a religious pledge to a republic that notionally provides him/her with liberty and justice.
A state religion leads either to the erosion of liberty or the erosion of religion. A country can end up like the Islamic Republic of Iran with brutal intolerance by a government of priests; or like England with its large quantity of empty state churches. Religious Americans should be careful of what they wish for.
.