GOD IN THE CROSSHAIRS
By
Ellen Makkai
July 13, 2012
NewsWithViews.com
Were God not almighty, He would have a severe inferiority complex. Human pipsqueaks routinely target Him with their popguns.
The latest salvo arrived on July 4th courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), in the form of full-page grenades in newspapers nationwide. I opened my Denver Post and there it was: “Celebrate Our Godless Constitution!” The obnoxious ad included obscure quotes that suggest our Founding Fathers viewed religion, faith and God with disdain.
The FFRF insists that the USA was not fashioned by patriots of unshakable Judaic/Christian convictions. The Independence Day ads ignore more famous quotes that reflect our founders’ true religious affections.
"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God?” queried Thomas Jefferson.
"Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped,” stated Benjamin Franklin, one often mistaken for a secularist.
In March FFRF curmudgeons in Madison, Wisconsin detonated a lawsuit in federal court hoping to have “In God We Trust” removed from our currency.
Last week, the American Atheists spit in the air with an atheist monument in Starke, Florida--placed beside the Ten Commandments outside the Bradford County courthouse.
A symbol carved prominently atop the monument is the emblem of an atom, which supposedly embodies the American Atheist’s faith that human existence is limited to rationality and science. In their limited scope, there is no spiritual or divine personality or dimension beyond the here and now.
Ironically, the atheists’ use of the atom as their insignia pilfers from the pivotal work done by Nobel Prize winner, Sir Joseph J. Thomson (Physics-1906). Sir Joseph, credited with discovering the electron and founding the field of atomic physics, was an intellectual giant and devout Bible reader.
“As we conquer peak after peak…in the distance tower still higher peaks [which] deepen the feeling, the truth of which is emphasized by every advance in science, that ‘Great are the Works of the Lord,’” said Thomson at his inauguration as President of The British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1909.
Last month Obama’s Department of Justice also targeted the name of God. The DOJ’s Office of Civil Rights yanked $30,000 in federal funds from the Bossier Parish, La. chapter of Young Marines, a successful organization for at-risk youth that promotes character, leadership and a drug-free lifestyle.
The penalization was prompted by the occasional mention of God, prayer and faith. The greatest abomination to the DOJ artillery was the youngsters’ oath: “From this day forward, I sincerely promise, I will set an example for all other youth to follow and I shall never do anything that would bring disgrace or dishonor upon God, my Country and its flag, my parents, myself or the Young Marines…”
In November, school officials at North Carolina’s West Marion Elementary School forced a youngster to delete “God” from a Veteran’s Day poem she wrote about her grandfather’s Vietnam experience.
How did this cadre of petulant secularists survived July 4th? No doubt they loved the pyrotechnics but the buoyant singing of patriotic standards must have sparked their internal TNT.
The chorus of “America the Beautiful,” soars with “America, America, God shed his grace on thee…” Irving Berlin’s popular melody is in reality a winsome prayer, “God bless America, land that I love…”
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Anti-religionists could enjoy “The Star Spangled Banner” because verse-four is seldom sung. Had they heard it they would themselves have become mini “bombs bursting in air.”
In the final stanza, Francis Scott Key includes the incendiary lines:
“Praise
the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation,
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”
� 2012 - Ellen Makkai - All Rights Reserved
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