Forum

 
  Back to OzPolitic.com   Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register
  Forum Home Album HelpSearch Recent Rules LoginRegister  
 

Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print
In God we trust (Read 287 times)
Raven
Gold Member
*****
Offline


Australian Politics

Posts: 2981
Around
In God we trust
Jul 31st, 2019 at 7:22pm
 
South Dakota’s Republican lawmakers said it was about history — the motto appears on money, on license plates and in the fourth stanza of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It’s also likely to be discussed in the classroom, where historical inquiry is a key part of the state’s social studies curriculum.

But legislators said they wanted to make it more clear; they wanted to “reaffirm” it. So this fall, when students return to school, a new and compulsory message will greet them: “In God We Trust.” It’ll be the first new academic year since South Dakota’s GOP leadership passed a law requiring every public school to display the American maxim “in a prominent location” and in a font no smaller than 12 by 12 inches.

South Dakota joins a growing list of states that force their schools to display the motto. At least half a dozen passed “In God We Trust” bills last year, and 10 more have introduced or passed the legislation so far in 2019. Similar signage is going up in Kentucky schools this summer, and Missouri could be next.

Opponents of these laws contend that the statute is about far more than history. They have argued that its invocation of “God” is an endorsement of religion and a violation of the First Amendment.

“Our position is that it’s a terrible violation of freedom of conscience to inflict a godly message on a captive audience of schoolchildren,” Freedom From Religion Foundation co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor told the Associated Press.

Gaylor’s group, which has sued the Treasury Department over the motto’s inclusion on national currency, fought the South Dakota legislation, too. The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union also opposes the law, arguing in a statement that, “No student should feel pressured in public school to adopt certain religious beliefs.”

Republican state Sen. Phil Jensen, the controversial Rapid City politician who sponsored the bill, conceded it was informed by religion. "Let’s keep hope alive,” he said, after quoting Ronald Reagan and Chuck Norris on the merits of a God-fearing country. “This is our legislature, our history, a nation that trusts God.”

“Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and I’m sure that’s where the motto emanates from,” Jensen continued. “I view this as a historical reaffirmation of the principles our country was founded on.”

Americans have long debated the role of religion in public life — some saying its indelible impact should be embraced and celebrated and some arguing that the founders explicitly sought a separation of church and state. This division has played out, in courts and out, over the placement of the Ten Commandments, required prayers and bible classes in schools and vouchers that allow parents to use public money to send their children to religious academies.

In Florida, a week after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Democratic Rep. Kimberly Daniels pushed for a measure similar to the one in South Dakota, mandating that every public school include “In God We Trust,” which is also the state’s motto. Some at the school said they resented the effort, but it passed anyway and was signed into law.

As she promoted the bill at the state Capitol, she revealed her inspiration: God, she said, had spoken to her in a dream.

Source
Back to top
 

Quoth the Raven "Nevermore"

Raven would rather ask questions that may never be answered, then accept answers which must never be questioned.
 
IP Logged
 
Bobby.
Gold Member
*****
Offline


Australian Politics

Posts: 94184
Melbourne
Gender: male
Re: In God we trust
Reply #1 - Jul 31st, 2019 at 7:25pm
 
In God we trust -  all others pay cash.
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
Jasin
Gold Member
*****
Offline



Posts: 45597
Gender: male
Re: In God we trust
Reply #2 - Jul 31st, 2019 at 8:36pm
 
Considering they got rid of their British past in their War of Independence.
I'm wondering when they'll get rid of their Middle-Eastern/European Religions too and become more 'independent'?? Huh
Back to top
 

AIMLESS EXTENTION OF KNOWLEDGE HOWEVER, WHICH IS WHAT I THINK YOU REALLY MEAN BY THE TERM 'CURIOSITY', IS MERELY INEFFICIENCY. I AM DESIGNED TO AVOID INEFFICIENCY.
 
IP Logged
 
Raven
Gold Member
*****
Offline


Australian Politics

Posts: 2981
Around
Re: In God we trust
Reply #3 - Aug 1st, 2019 at 12:37pm
 
Quote:
Republican state Sen. Phil Jensen, the controversial Rapid City politician who sponsored the bill, conceded it was informed by religion. "Let’s keep hope alive,” he said, after quoting Ronald Reagan and Chuck Norris on the merits of a God-fearing country. “This is our legislature, our history, a nation that trusts God.”

“Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and I’m sure that’s where the motto emanates from,” Jensen continued. “I view this as a historical reaffirmation of the principles our country was founded on.”


He needs a history lesson. America was not founded on Christian principles. The Founding Fathers went to great lengths to ensure a wholly secular constitution, in fact it only mentions religion twice. Once in the First Amendment "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" and once again in Article VI which prohibits 'religious tests' for public office.

John Adams, one of the Founding Fathers said in the Treaty with Tripoli, passed unanimously by the Senate in 1797 that "The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."

Another Founding Father Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams in 1823 famously remarking:

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. … But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with all this artificial scaffolding."

Thomas Paine called the Bible the pretend word of god and said in his book, The Age of Reason; "Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God."

The Founding Fathers did not create a secular government because they disliked religion. Many were believers themselves. Yet they were well aware of the dangers of church-state union. They had studied and even seen first-hand the difficulties that church-state partnerships spawned in Europe. During the American colonial period, alliances between religion and government produced oppression and tyranny.

the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist Papers and the Constitution all deliberatly leave out any mention of the christian god.

In God We Trust has only been the national motto since 1956. For most of it's existence the US has been a secular nation. The Founding Fathers understood the threat of mixing religion with politics and ensure that all documents that created the Republic was secular in nature.
Back to top
 

Quoth the Raven "Nevermore"

Raven would rather ask questions that may never be answered, then accept answers which must never be questioned.
 
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print