In God We Trust, But Forget About Him...

Huh?

Can we really have it both ways?
Our founding fathers were men of faith. They looked to their religion when it came to drafting our Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

I will conceed that the founding father's made it clear that church and state should be two separate entities, however, the issue I now find myself taking with this same separation is that our current government does not seem to know it's boundaries anymore. While I understand the need to remove God from the classroom since not all members of society practice the same religion or any at all for that matter, I do not understand the need to remove God from society.

If religion is not to step upon the feet of government, why then is it ok for government to step upon the feet of religion?

Additionally, I take real issue with the removal of God from our founding documents, our courtrooms, and our money. There was a time, when those testifying in a court case, would place their hand upon a Bible and honor the vow that they would be honest, under God's watchful eye. It meant something. Faith meant something. Now, you raise your right hand and vow to whom? The judge? Yourself?

I don't know, but it just doesn't seem to have the same effect.

I'm a parent. I do base what I say and believe on my faith, not just my government. My trust goes first in my God and then in my country, not the other way around. I realize there is no legitimate way to back what I believe, no way to point to documents, because what I believe is based on my gut. My heart. My soul.

When I ask my kids to be honest with me, they know that if they lie to me, that I may not know the truth, but that God does and that is effective.
The same used to be true for the courtroom.
When men put their hands on a bible, they were swearing to God to tell the truth. God.
And, for YEARS, that was ok to do. Until it wasn't.

I know some courts still use the bible and some still have His words on their walls, but many others have removed those words that often were the very ones that brought truth from the mouths of liars.

Why 220 years after this country was founded on religion, are we so set on destroying what has held us so firmly together?

(from an email I received)

DID YOU KNOW?
As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U.S. Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view ... it is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!

DID YOU KNOW?
As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door.

DID YOU KNOW?
As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall, right above where the Supreme Court judges sit,a display of the Ten Commandments!

DID YOU KNOW?
There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the Federal Buildings and Monuments in Washington, D.C.

DID YOU KNOW?
Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country said: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ".

DID YOU KNOW?
Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by a paid preacher, whose salary has been paid by the taxpayer since 1777.

If it has worked for 220 years, why are we so eager to change it?

I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy. ~ Thomas Paine
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For God's Sake, Separate Church and State

There are a lot of things that just don't go together-Oil and water. Bleach and ammonia. Me and my in laws-and as far as I'm concerned the church and the state is yet another example of terrible combinations.

The first amendment says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Congress cannot make laws establishing a national religion or with preference for one religion over another, non-religion over religion, or religion over non-religion and it may not prevent people from acting on their moral beliefs. It seems clear enough, and yet some people continue to believe that the law should be based on their idea of God's Will.

On the surface I can definitely see the appeal of a 'moral' society-but the deeper you dig the more trouble you run into. For one thing, whose morals do we enforce? Christian morals? Atheist? Muslim? Buddhist? Jewish? There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of ethical codes represented by the population of the United States-we can't just decide to represent one group of people more than another, that would undermine our founding principle of equality. The idea of morality in law is already undermining the equality of many people within the US today.

Homosexuals are not allowed to get married-why? This is at odds with equal rights. They cannot be denied the right to enter into any other contract or obtain any other licensing because of their sexual orientation, so why can't they marry? "Moral law" is preventing these people from enjoying the equality that is assured to them through the Constitution.

"Values Voters" (besides implying falsely that only Christian Agenda-pushers have values worth respecting) are actually undermining the essential value of equality in this country and, whether they realize it or not, are endangering their own establishments. It seems they somehow forget that the river goes both ways-you put the church in bed with the state the state is also in bed with the church.

The government has no business getting into the church's business-monitoring them, restricting them, legislating them, or otherwise meddling in religious affairs-but if I've said it once I've said it a thousand times; the government is like a vampire. Once you let them in it's nearly impossible to get them out.

This country was established on a set of values-but those values hold no allegiance to any particular religion. Instead they hold allegiance to the absolute autonomy of the people of this country-to protect us all equally regardless of our faith and to give everyone the freedom to believe as they want and to act on those beliefs without oppressive government oversight. It is because of those values that no one can stop you from following your own moral agenda-but it is also the reason that the rest of the country can be protected from those who would foist their will onto the general populace.

As usual, Thomas Jefferson said it best:

Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.

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Ms Lib R Tea and the Horse's...Mouth

When it comes to the media, I say ignore it all. There is nobody without an agenda today-with NBC courting Liberals, Fox courting Republicans, CNN courting "youth"(ha), and the newspapers all divided similarly there is no safe unbiased port left in the sea of media overexposure. Even so-called independent shows and magazines and those geared toward 'exposing' the government (The New American, for instance) have very tilted angles these days.

And that is exactly why Jon Stewart is America's most trusted newscaster.

I don't mean that to be a disparaging comment-I love Jon Stewart. I've been watching The Daily Show since Stewart started in 99 and I think it is both hilarious and informative....and, despite Stewart's obvious left leanings, it is in my opinion currently the least biased news program on television. He can mock Obama and have Mike Huckabee on the show in one week, then turn around and mercilessly skewer Dick Cheney [in a hilarious reoccurring segment called "You Don't Know Dick"] and kiss the health care bill's butt. Democrats love him. Even conservatives admit he's fair. That's a lot more than can be said for any other media outlet. Still, while I watch The Daily Show Monday through Thursday every week without fail and enjoy it thoroughly I still think the way to get real news today is straight from the horse's mouth.

The only source of news that can be trusted anymore is the unbiased, unvarnished, deglittered, bare bones truth....and any more you can only get that by watching for yourself. I highly recommend committing CSPAN to your DVR and using the THOMAS program from the Library of Congress to look up bills and their status, committee reports, congressional records, and more--that way you can form actual opinions on what is actually happening, not just opinions on the opinions of other people as is so often done.

So I say Don't watch television "news programs". Don't buy newspapers. Don't read magazines. Let all of those outlets go down in flames for what they've done-perverting the news to fit their goals, aims, and political associations. Get the raw data and information for yourself and come to your own conclusions-because you are the only news reporter you can trust anymore.

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