Unfortunately since the 1950s there has been a Christian assault on our government's concept of neutrality. They try to claim "God" is neutral and could be any god, and that has always been a load of bullshit. Every time there has been an attempt to put "God" or a Christian icon of some sort on public property, it is never a diverse attempt, it is always headed by Christians.
And it continues here where I live, I won't post a link because of my own security, but my local has passed legislation allowing government vehicles to put "In God We Trust" on them. I hate human logic, because these same morons doing this shit rightfully bitch about Islamic states plastering Allah and Koran quotes all over government property in the east.
I am NOT deluding myself here, these attempts have always existed, but what is sad is knowing how more conservative and theocratic the colonies were, and how much we have gotten away from that, only to have one party and the far right hijack our government out of nothing but bullshit fear.
It is disturbing to me the amount of far right mixing of religion in government with absolutely no concept as to what history says about the dangers of mixing the two.
The pledge was not enough for them, having it on the money was not enough for them. They need to piss on every bush and every tree just like Iran and Saudi Arabia. I do not think those advocating it understand long term how this is dangerous. Even if only Christians existed, and no other religions, or atheists.
EVEN IF, there were only Christians, you'd still be stuck with conservatives and liberal Christians, you'd still be stuck with the right wing Baptists and Obama voting Baptists. You'd still be stuck with Catholics and Protestants and Methodists and Mormons ect ect ect ect, all vying for political attention. All one has to do, even today to know how stupid it is to run a government on religion, is to know how divided Sunni's and Shiites are in the east.
I think far too many Christians, even liberals, forget how much more dogmatic and divided America was, how theocratic the colonies were, how dogmatic even Europe was for centuries.
There was a damned good reason the 1rst Amendment was written the way it was. There was a damned good reason Jefferson wrote about his wall to the Baptists. There was a reason the oath of office has "no religious test" in it.
I do not think most of the founders would be happy that God ended up on the money or in the pledge. Nobody is arguing any of them were atheists, nor should they. But they were well aware of the sectarian divisions of their time. They saw religion as personal, not political, and it is clear that today's GOP does not care about that concept.
"God" does not mean "any God", not on the money, not in the pledge. It has always been intended to promote ONE God, not the concept of freedom of religion.
Christians on the right need to understand that in the west, those who are not the majority, does not mean we are second class. Your corporate logo does not belong on government property. Your corporate logo is not neutral, anymore than "Allah" is neutral in the middle east.
Non Christians in the west, and in America, are not your guests, we are your equals. We are not your pets either. We are not second class to you. Our government is OURS. Saying that government needs to leave religion at the door, isn't advocating the forced end of religion, but in that neutrality prevents us from looking like the theocracies of the middle east.
Christians are not the only Americans. Anyone of any religion born here or naturalized ARE AMERICANS, no matter what label they hold. America has Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, Buddhist Americans, Hindu Americans and atheists too.
If those crybabies insisting on gang tagging all government property with their corporate logo want to understand what it is like to live as a minority then maybe they need to ask Christians living under Muslim majorities in Africa and the middle east before they insist on a backslide theocracy here.
And it continues here where I live, I won't post a link because of my own security, but my local has passed legislation allowing government vehicles to put "In God We Trust" on them. I hate human logic, because these same morons doing this shit rightfully bitch about Islamic states plastering Allah and Koran quotes all over government property in the east.
I am NOT deluding myself here, these attempts have always existed, but what is sad is knowing how more conservative and theocratic the colonies were, and how much we have gotten away from that, only to have one party and the far right hijack our government out of nothing but bullshit fear.
It is disturbing to me the amount of far right mixing of religion in government with absolutely no concept as to what history says about the dangers of mixing the two.
The pledge was not enough for them, having it on the money was not enough for them. They need to piss on every bush and every tree just like Iran and Saudi Arabia. I do not think those advocating it understand long term how this is dangerous. Even if only Christians existed, and no other religions, or atheists.
EVEN IF, there were only Christians, you'd still be stuck with conservatives and liberal Christians, you'd still be stuck with the right wing Baptists and Obama voting Baptists. You'd still be stuck with Catholics and Protestants and Methodists and Mormons ect ect ect ect, all vying for political attention. All one has to do, even today to know how stupid it is to run a government on religion, is to know how divided Sunni's and Shiites are in the east.
I think far too many Christians, even liberals, forget how much more dogmatic and divided America was, how theocratic the colonies were, how dogmatic even Europe was for centuries.
There was a damned good reason the 1rst Amendment was written the way it was. There was a damned good reason Jefferson wrote about his wall to the Baptists. There was a reason the oath of office has "no religious test" in it.
I do not think most of the founders would be happy that God ended up on the money or in the pledge. Nobody is arguing any of them were atheists, nor should they. But they were well aware of the sectarian divisions of their time. They saw religion as personal, not political, and it is clear that today's GOP does not care about that concept.
"God" does not mean "any God", not on the money, not in the pledge. It has always been intended to promote ONE God, not the concept of freedom of religion.
Christians on the right need to understand that in the west, those who are not the majority, does not mean we are second class. Your corporate logo does not belong on government property. Your corporate logo is not neutral, anymore than "Allah" is neutral in the middle east.
Non Christians in the west, and in America, are not your guests, we are your equals. We are not your pets either. We are not second class to you. Our government is OURS. Saying that government needs to leave religion at the door, isn't advocating the forced end of religion, but in that neutrality prevents us from looking like the theocracies of the middle east.
Christians are not the only Americans. Anyone of any religion born here or naturalized ARE AMERICANS, no matter what label they hold. America has Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, Buddhist Americans, Hindu Americans and atheists too.
If those crybabies insisting on gang tagging all government property with their corporate logo want to understand what it is like to live as a minority then maybe they need to ask Christians living under Muslim majorities in Africa and the middle east before they insist on a backslide theocracy here.
