Re: vision2020-digest Digest V02 #198

[Doug Farris <heirloom@moscow.com>]

Dear Linda, John and Janesta,

I appreciate the various comments that were made by all of you and I
thought I would add my own. Although I find it frightening to think that
a few judges can make changes to a simple pledge of allegiance, and go
against the wishes of the populace and their representatives, I don't
believe they can remove all of the statements that permeate the rest of
the historical documents and music that are part of our country's
heritage. I believe that these simple statements of dependence upon a
Living God will be redeemed by all of the other statements that will
remain.

Take for instance the last verse of the star spangled banner:

Oh! thus be it ever,  when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home, and the war's desolation!

Blest with victory and peace,  may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must,  when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, “In God is our trust!”

And the star-spangled banner In triumph shall wave,
O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.


Or you may want to look at the last three verses of "America the
Beautiful"
You all know the first verse but I will print the last ones here:

Oh beautiful for pilgrim feet Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness, And every gain divine.

Oh beautiful for patriot’s dream That looks beyond the years
On alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears
America, America God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea.


Or you may want to look the "Declaration of Independence". (We should
read the statements about the liberties that were taken away by the King
of England every day to see how we skim so close to the same things
today... but I digress...) (but then so has the United States Congress,
Judiciary and Executive branches digressed!)

Just a glance at the first paragraph should be enough to make the
mildest atheist's skin crawl:

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.

and the next....

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 the last....

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.

Did you get the "God" words...
"the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"
"that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator"

"with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence,"

Kinda hard not ta miss 'em...

I could go into all of the state constitutions back then that had as a
precursor to holding public office "faith in a creator God" but then you
would not get the chance to study on your own...

Maybe those who feel compelled to remove them selves from any public
confession of humility and need ought to remove them selves from the
presence of Divine Providence. As David Said: "Where can I go from your
Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens,
you are there; if I make my bed in the depths (or place of the dead,
hell),  you are there." So... Good Luck!

lemeno,

Doug Farris,
Taking down the false wall of separation, one brick at a time...