"IN GOD WE TRUST"
I got the following mass email yesterday, in huge print and bright colors:
Do you believe that the word God should stay in American culture?
NBC this morning had a poll on this question. They had the highest Number of responses that they have ever had for one of their polls, and the Percentage was the same as this:
86% to keep the words, IN God We Trust and God in the Pledge of Allegiance
14% against
That is a pretty 'commanding' public response.
I was asked to send this on if I agreed or delete if I didn't .
Now it is your turn It is said that 86% of Americans believe the word God should stay.
Therefore, I have a very hard time understanding why there is such A mess about having 'In God We Trust' on our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Why is the world catering to this 14%?
AMEN!
I get stuff like this all the time. It's not wholly useless to answer, because someone usually wises up. I answered as follows:
Is any of you able to imagine the apostle Paul caring that IN GOD WE TRUST be stamped on the money of the people whose trust is that money? When Jesus borrowed the tribute money to teach from it, does it seem to any of you that he wanted it to say IN GOD WE TRUST rather than bearing Caesar's image and superscription?
If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, how do you suppose he feels about this question today? If we actually trust in God, why not believe in His word enough to learn his perspective on this and questions like it from our Bibles?
I got one response:
A thoughtful reply...but I think in the absence of God in so many places, and the anti-God attitude in some, people are hungry for reminders of His presence, wherever they can preserve it.
To which I said:
"To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet," just as it is written, and so you truly observe. Days are coming that we will want to see one of the days of the Son of Man and won't see it, Jesus said, and in that day many false prophets and many false Christs will arise and deceive many.
But wasn't God absent in many places in imperial Rome, and didn't they have an anti-god attitude here and there in those days?
IN GOD WE TRUST on American money is a lie, indeed a blasphemy. It is in the purest sense to take the name of the Lord in vain - to use it in complete emptiness. For the ungodly to do so, to paste it on our coins to humor "Christians," like a piece of offal thrown to a barking dog, is understandable, and I expect of them no better. As Edward Gibbon said of Rome, the people believed the gods to be true, the philosophers believed them false, and the rulers believed they were useful.
But for people taking upon themselves the name of Christ to so degrade ourselves as to whine for such trifles from Caesar - who can imagine such conduct in Jesus or the apostles? Who can fear God and sit still for people to disgrace the Name in such fashion?
Do you believe that the word God should stay in American culture?
NBC this morning had a poll on this question. They had the highest Number of responses that they have ever had for one of their polls, and the Percentage was the same as this:
86% to keep the words, IN God We Trust and God in the Pledge of Allegiance
14% against
That is a pretty 'commanding' public response.
I was asked to send this on if I agreed or delete if I didn't .
Now it is your turn It is said that 86% of Americans believe the word God should stay.
Therefore, I have a very hard time understanding why there is such A mess about having 'In God We Trust' on our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Why is the world catering to this 14%?
AMEN!
I get stuff like this all the time. It's not wholly useless to answer, because someone usually wises up. I answered as follows:
Is any of you able to imagine the apostle Paul caring that IN GOD WE TRUST be stamped on the money of the people whose trust is that money? When Jesus borrowed the tribute money to teach from it, does it seem to any of you that he wanted it to say IN GOD WE TRUST rather than bearing Caesar's image and superscription?
If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, how do you suppose he feels about this question today? If we actually trust in God, why not believe in His word enough to learn his perspective on this and questions like it from our Bibles?
I got one response:
A thoughtful reply...but I think in the absence of God in so many places, and the anti-God attitude in some, people are hungry for reminders of His presence, wherever they can preserve it.
To which I said:
"To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet," just as it is written, and so you truly observe. Days are coming that we will want to see one of the days of the Son of Man and won't see it, Jesus said, and in that day many false prophets and many false Christs will arise and deceive many.
But wasn't God absent in many places in imperial Rome, and didn't they have an anti-god attitude here and there in those days?
IN GOD WE TRUST on American money is a lie, indeed a blasphemy. It is in the purest sense to take the name of the Lord in vain - to use it in complete emptiness. For the ungodly to do so, to paste it on our coins to humor "Christians," like a piece of offal thrown to a barking dog, is understandable, and I expect of them no better. As Edward Gibbon said of Rome, the people believed the gods to be true, the philosophers believed them false, and the rulers believed they were useful.
But for people taking upon themselves the name of Christ to so degrade ourselves as to whine for such trifles from Caesar - who can imagine such conduct in Jesus or the apostles? Who can fear God and sit still for people to disgrace the Name in such fashion?
posted by Peter Attwood at 5/23/2008 09:54:00 PM
2 Comments:
Awesome.
Joe
Yes, very good position I must say. I agree that from a Christian perspective, we should consider it blasphemous to have God on our currency, especially since money is indeed a, if not the, root of most human evil.
However, I look at the situation strickly from a constitutional perspective. The separation clause is meant to protect both the church from the state's influence and the state from the church's influence. It is exceedingly important that both protections be maintained.
Like many others, I am very dismayed at the pressure and influence the Christian right is bringing to bear on politics in the US and they are doing so regardless of its conflict with the constitutional guidelines.
Our corrupt administration is working overtime already to strip us of constitutional guarantees. The churches should not be lending them a hand.
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