In God We Trust – Did I Make You Angry?
In God We Trust. I've already angered a segment of society just by writing four simple words.
Today, controversy between the Democrats and Republicans has turned to talks of religion, a result of the Obama's administration attempt to force Catholic institutions to provide women's contraception for their employees. Though the president has since reversed himself on that stance, the controversy goes beyond this particular issue. Many feel this is about the escalating war on religion, specifically Christianity.
Ask anyone from the Greatest Generation how they were able to make it through the Great Depression and World War II, and they will tell you it was their strength and perseverance. But they will also tell you that their strength and perseverance was born out of and shaped by their faith.
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During the Cuban Missile Crisis, after the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., and during the Vietnam War, citizens all over the country prayed. They prayed in their houses. They prayed in their synagogues and Mormon temples. The collective voice of their prayers crossed all religions and names by which God goes by.
But over the past twenty years there has been a growing onslaught on anything Christian ingrained in our society. The Pledge of Allegiance, our patriotic oath, is no longer mandatory in schools while some districts are threatening to eradicate it from classrooms altogether, because it bears the words: "one nation under God." Department stores instruct their employees not to wish customers a Merry Christmas because it has the word Christ in it. In some municipalities, statues have been removed from outside courthouses because they reference God.
Though I myself was raised as a Catholic, I do not attend church or even pray on a regular basis. In fact, I have many qualms with the recent developments in the Catholic Church. But I do believe in faith and that there is a higher spirit – and there is no reason to separate religion from our everyday lives. And I certainly believe that if there is a God, I want him watching over our great nation - as I'm sure you do too. God Bless the United States!
