One nation under God? Well, it used to be. However it seems that in recent years, the mentioning of God, unless used as a curse word, is a crime.
I am a 17-year-old Christian high school student at Frederick High School. The only time I ever get to hear about God around that school is when it is followed by the word "damn." That's not the kind of society I want to live in.
With the ruling of 2-1 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California, the phrase "under God" has been declared unconstitutional. Whatever happened to "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"? Isn't saying "under God" the free exercise of a person's religious beliefs?
The Declaration of Independence was written, with 27 biblical violations. Of the 55 people who formed the Constitution, 52 were active members of their church. John Adams once said: "It is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand." George Washington said: "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." and, "You can't have national morality apart from religious principle."
Abraham Lincoln stated: "The only assurance of our nation's safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion." He also said, "The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next." I find this to be true.
In 1962, prayer was removed from schools, and since it wasn't in the school room for the last generation, it's disappearing from the government in this generation.
However, what has happened since we started to kick God out of the nation? The morality of this nation has decreased dramatically. It can be seen in our music. In the '50s and '60s, Elvis Presley was singing about a "hound dog" and even sang a large number of gospel songs. The Beatles sang about wanting to hold your hand. In the '90s and today, we have Marilyn Manson with songs like "Cake and Sodomy," "Antichrist Superstar," and "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)," with lyrics that are worse than the titles.
We also have Eminem, with songs that promote adultery, fornication, suicide, robbery, murder, drinking, taking drugs and even having his sister raped. In the song "My Dad's Gone Crazy" from "The Eminem Show," he sings: "I'm goin' to hell, who's comin' with me?" Well, he obviously doesn't want to go alone, so why not drag America down with him by influencing them with his songs?
Television is just as bad. Backing up again to the 1950s, Lucille Ball, from the show "I Love Lucy," could not even say the word "pregnant." Instead, she was "with baby." Also, censors' motors were running when scenes from "I Love Lucy" had Lucy and her husband in their bedroom, regardless of the fact that they were in separate beds. In 1957, when Elvis Presley appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show for the third time, CBS censors ordered cameramen to film him only from the waist up, because seeing someone shaking his hips on television might lower the morality of Americans.
Yet today, we have such shows as "Undressed on MTV," which promotes premarital sex, bisexuality, group sex, gay sex, etc. We also have "Jackass on MTV," which has one little warning in the beginning saying not to copy what is seen on the show. Regardless, what is seen on that show is still copied around America.
Shows and music like this would not exist if we did not try to push God out of our lives and out of our country. Over 90 percent of Americans believe in God, although only 35-40 percent attend church on a weekly basis. Back in the 1950s, schools had to worry about kids talking in class, throwing spitballs and chewing gum. Now, we have to worry about guns and knives in schools, fights, shootings, rapes and foul language.
Since when did "majority rules" stop? If the majority believes in God, why do we have to stop mentioning him simply because the minority doesn't like to hear it? If people don't want to pray in schools, they don't have to. That doesn't mean that those that do want to shouldn't be allowed to.
If people don't want to say "under God" when the pledge is recited, no one is forcing them to. In 1962, prayer was removed from schools because Madelyn Murray O'Hair, the most infamous atheist in the world, did not want her son William praying "to some god that doesn't exist." William later became a born-again Christian, and was disowned by his mother. As a matter of fact, Madelyn Murray O'Hair tried to challenge the Supreme Court as to the inclusion of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance in 1964, 10 years after it was introduced, and in 1978, even challenged the words "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency.
What's constitutional about trying to refuse the rights of religious expression? What's constitutional about pushing God away at a time when this country needs him most? In my opinion, nothing. If anything, prayer should be brought back into schools; people should choose whether or not they feel like saying the words "under God" or not, and people should be allowed to express themselves and their faith in any way they feel.
If this nation, which has been a Christian nation for the last 200-plus years, wants to stay that way, we need to embrace God, not push him out of the way. Patrick Henry once said: "Our country was founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ," so why are we trying to get rid of that in this great country of ours?
If you remove the foundation of a house, will it stand anymore? No. God is the foundation of America. If we remove God, will America stand anymore? No. The Bible says that a house divided cannot stand, and America is starting to be divided between those who believe in God, and those who don't. If you keep taking God out, America will not stand much longer. People ask me: " 'How can God exist? He isn't doing anything anymore.' I have to reply that God will start doing great things for this nation again when this nation starts to acknowledge God again. How can we expect God to do things if we don't even allow him to be mentioned in school, let alone much anywhere else? It's time to come back to God again, before the morality of this nation gets any worse.
THOMAS J. DIEHL
Frederick
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Last updated 3/13/2004
