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Guest Column

God is mentioned a lot, but should stay out of politics

By JACK BRAY
Published April 2, 2007

Good God. Dear God. For God's sake. Omigod. God, we mention God a lot in this country! And yet, many of us have asked that he stay out of politics.

Take the case that the U.S. Supreme Court will soon be reviewing involving government funding for "faith-based initiatives." It's a good example of how so many feel that God should stay out of politics.

"Stay out of" politics. Also known as "separation of church and state," a phrase quoted so often that you would swear it was part of the First Amendment.

Well, it's not. Nowhere in the First Amendment do we find that phrase. What we do find, however, is, "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion ..."

I'm no constitutional lawyer, but I think this meant there could never be a national religion. "Respecting," I suspect, was the authors' clumsy way of saying, "as far as" or "with regard to."

Yet, every time someone complains about a Ten Commandments plaque displayed in a government building or a nativity scene placed on public property, they scream separation of church and state. Not so.

A religious display on government property does not mean that it represents the government's religion. There is no government religion. Congress is prohibited from establishing one. A religious display is not illegal, then, it is merely ill advised, because it invariably incites controversy. A similar display on private property is protected (allowed) by part of the rest of the amendment (Congress "shall make no law ... prohibiting the free exercise thereof...")

So, there is no law that says we must worship one way and no law that says we can't worship another way. In fact, we're free to exercise whatever way we choose. Those guys were good.

It amazes me that we easily accept "In God We Trust" on our currency, easily say "so help me God" at the end of an oath, proudly proclaim "one nation under God" in our Pledge of Allegiance, yet go ballistic when we see public displays of God's existence.

So, who is this God? It seems to me that if we are using his name so freely (not in vain, necessarily), we should know more about him, don't you think? Maybe we'll learn that we have nothing to fear if we allow him to be in our lives in more than name only.

In the meantime, "God bless America."

See what I mean?

Jack Bray is a retired broadcasting executive who lives in Dunedin. Views expressed by guest columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.

[Last modified April 1, 2007, 22:15:11]