Removing God from American History

It is true that saying "in God We Trust" doesn't make it true; but there is something to be said for acknowledging something that ought to be true and can be true at any time and in any place, such as acknowledging a place for divine providence. It's not the gospel, but it is a confession that neither man nor state is god.

This story from the Washington Post blogs highlights some troubling omissions, deliberate deletions of religiou references from our historical "deposit." What next?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights  ....?

Comments

[Michael]

Jim:

What story from the Post? I think you forgot to hyperlink your text.

[Bob]

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/ This perhaps?

[Bob]

Oops, I meant this: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2008/12/godbless_america.html

[Bob]

Oops, I meant this: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2008/12/godbless_america.html

[labrialumn]

President-designate Barry Soetoro has announced that within his first 100 days he will travel to a major Muslim capital and redefine America's relationship with Islam. My guess is that he will renounce (and more likely, deny) any Christian past or principles of this country and its founding.

That may well be the "next."

As to the dictionary; aren't they most helpful for learning words one does not already know? Is not then the idea here claimed for this revision utterly bone-headed? (apologies to any Minbari-Americans reading this ;-)

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>President-designate Barry Soetoro has announced that within his first 100 days he will travel to a major Muslim capital and redefine America's relationship with Islam. <<<

He's going to Lansing, MI?

>>.My guess is that he will renounce (and more likely, deny) any Christian past or principles of this country and its founding.<<<

Don't be inane. Obama is first and foremost a politician, which means he isn't going to shoot off his own. um, generative organ in an empty gesture that would alienate not only the 46% that voted against him, but about half of the 54% that voted for him.

[Michael D. Harmon]

Thanks for the Babylon 5 reference, Labrialumn. But remember what shocking discovery brought the Human-Minbari War to a sudden halt just before the final destruction of Earth. We're ALL Minbari-Americans....

[Joe Long]

From the article:

" 'We have built no temple but the Capitol. We consult no common oracle but the Constitution.' That's a quote from 19th Century Congressman Rufus Choate of Massachusetts."

Well, here's the trouble with that: undermining the sacred in national life seems to lead directly to postmodernizing his "secular scripture", too, and turning the Constitution into a tea-leaf reading, an oracle of a rather more subjective sort than I expect Choate intended.

The capitol, a "temple"? I will charitably chalk that up to overblown oratory, but in our own century there seem to be folks who DO worship government - for them I suppose the capitol has everything a temple ought to.

Well, no Vestal Virgins, of course...