A whole bunch of years ago, when I was sitting in a court room during divorce proceedings, I noticed the words, “IN GOD WE TRUST” emblazoned on the wall above the judge’s bench. And I leaned over to my attorney and, indicating the wording, said, “So…the whole separation of church and state thing…?”
“Not so much,” said my attorney.
Well, a blow for remembering that shoving God in your face isn’t exactly always appreciated was struck in Kentucky when a judge ruled that a state law regarding homeland security had crossed the ever-flexible line in that regard. The law apparently treated survival in a manner similar to the way AA treats alcoholism: You have to acknowledge your dependence on a higher power for survival. And the judge rightly said, “Uh uh. Unconstitutional.”
The state representative–who is, not coincidentally, a pastor–declared that it wasn’t a matter of religion. “God isn’t a religion. God is God!” he declared. He also pointed out that the words “In God We Trust” appears on all the money. Which is true. But the mandate to put the newly declared national motto on all the money (not just the few coins on which it previously appeared) didn’t occur until the 1950s, at the same time that the words “under God” were inserted into the pledge of allegiance. You know, back when Congress was desperate to prove that we were different from the Godless commies, not to mention falling over each other to weed out Reds in our society and consequently ruining the careers and lives of a lot of good people.
Not that we’ve moved beyond the need to persecute people, harass them, and boycott them simply because of opinions they might or might not possess; the spirit of Tailgunner Joe is alive and well to this day, I can assure you. So the insertion of God into various aspects of life by government fiat has a not-so-proud legacy. I’ll be interested to see if the good pastor’s observation about the money triggers the next law suit.
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