So I received an email...
Posted on 2007-04-26 at 21:14
The subject of the email was "FW: YOU BET I'LL PASS IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!" The contents went something like this:
YOU BET I'LL PASS IT ON!!!- - -
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!
I was asked to send this on if I agree or delete if I don't. It is said that 86% of Americans Believe in God. Therefore I have a very hard time understanding why there is such a problem in having "In God We Trust" on our money and having "God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.
I AGREE!
PLEASE KEEP THIS GOING, EVEN IF YOU HAVE PASSED IT ON BEFORE!!
Please send this on after a short Prayer!
Prayer wheel for our Marines, soldiers, sailors, Coast guard, and airmen.. Please don't break it
"Dear Heavenly Father, Hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us. Bless them and their families For the selfless acts they perform For us in our time of need. Please stop a moment And say a prayer for our troops (land, air, and sea) in Afghanistan , Kuwait , Iraq and all around the world.
This can be very powerful... Just send this to people in your address book. Do not stop the wheel, please...
Of all the gifts you could give our . Military,s Prayer is the very best one!
God will Love You for helping Spread His Word..THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:
1. Jesus Christ
2. The American G. I. And soldiers of all nations
One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.
YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON, AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET BOTH OF THEM.
As you might imagine I have strong feelings on this topic, so I decided to reply:
According to the U.S. Census in 2001 the percentage of Christians is 79.8% (a drop of 8.5% from 10 years earlier), Jews constitute another 1.4%, and Muslims another 0.6%. The rest of the United States does not acknowledge any sort of deity that bears even a passing resemblance to the God of Jewish culture that Christians, Muslims, and Jews worship. Fully 15% of Americans do not acknowledge any religion at all (an increase of 6.6% over the preceding 10 years).
The reason having those statements on our money and in our national pledge is a bad thing is that it tries to sanctify our nation as a religious one. This /is/ a problem. Our nation is a secular one and that's that way it was designed. Our separation of church and state is necessary to uphold the freedoms our military is installed to protect. One of those freedoms is the freedom to be an atheist, an agnostic, a Buddhist, or a Wicca. When we put "One nation under God" in our pledge we are asking those people (nearly 1 in 5 citizens of this country!) to choose between their own faith and being loyal to America. When we put "In God we trust" on our money we are telling those same 1 in 5 Americans that they participate in our culture by our grace as Jews, Muslims, and Christians rather than by the grace of their own birthright as native-born Americans or by the hard-won choice they made when they undertook the road to gain citizenship. We are telling them, those 1 in 5 Americans, that their faith---their spiritual choices---make them less-than-fully American. I may not agree with your choice to be an atheist, but I'd be damned before I let your Right to make that decision be stripped away.
If you are unswayed by those arguments, let me make one that appeals to your self interest. Right now we (religious people who recognize the Jewish God in our faith) are the majority. Re-read the numbers I gave you in the first paragraph. The numbers of people who are not us doubled in the 90s. That number has continued to grow in the 2000s. That growth is at the expense of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim populations. There may very possibly come a day when we are the minority. If and when that day comes, do you want the new majority to look back on our behavior as a model? If so, what lessons do you want them to take from us? That we forced our views on others? That we made them stand up in class every morning and say a pledge to a God they didn't believe in or be ostracized for abstaining? Not me. I want them to look back and see that we instead treated them as equals, that we allowed them the freedom to choose as they please, they we gave them every opportunity to see our faith but never pushed it on them. That's what I want them to remember if they are ever in the majority, because it is our choices now that will help shape their choices in the future. If we don't recognize the position we are putting them in with a federal endorsement of our specific religious claims, then I promise you that whatever persecution we face as a future minority will be of our own making.
So, no, I won't pass this message on and, no, I won't delete it if I disagree. I'll stand proud as an American with a voice and as a Christian with compassion and reply on behalf of all those people who are not being given a voice in this debate, who are not being given a choice in their pledge or on their currency, who are not being given respect by the majority of Christians who sit damnably silent because it isn't they who are being disenfranchised this time.
Remove God from our federal payroll. He doesn't need our support. We need His. Muhammad once said that difference of opinion in the community is a manifestation of God's mercy.
God bless everyone. No exceptions.
I think my reply said all that needs saying regarding my position on this topic.