- Immediately remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. This is obviously forcing religious beliefs on so many; it's time to simply remove those awful words.
- In public, governmental oaths, remove the words, "so help me God" and do not permit those taking the oaths to swear on the Bible. This happens every day in courthouses around the country, and the President does it publicly every four years. We must make sure those who are non-religious don't feel any kind of inadequacy or offense.
- Ban all mention of any kind or sort of religion from any public speeches made by elected or appointed officials, or anyone on government payroll. These people represent the government, and we can't have them spouting their beliefs and hurting the feelings of others or making them feel they need to worship God.
- Remove "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem. The last stanza of the song speaks of America as a "heaven-rescued land" and also clearly states, "And this be our motto, 'In God is our trust'". So it obviously needs to go. In fact, most of our patriotic songs mention God or religious themes. "America" (aka "My Country 'Tis of Thee"), "America The Beautiful", "God Bless America", "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (aka "Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory")...all have blatantly religious messages within their stanzas. Obviously, we need something different..."This Land Is Your Land", perhaps. It has patriotic verses that can placate conservatives, coupled with edgy, folksy stanzas (by Woody Guthrie, of course) with leftist complaints to provide the self-loathing that liberals just eat up with a spoon and fork. And completely non-offensive to non-religious people.
- Remove "In God We Trust" from all currency printing presses and coining machines. Further, all existing coinage and bills that display this motto will need to be replaced, immediately. It won't do to have non-religious folks offended every time they're buying something. Bills typically last only a few years, so that replacement, coupled with some patience, won't take too long, but coins can last for decades. A concerted effort by the government and all citizens will need to take place to remove these references.
- Remove any reference to God from all public buildings and national monuments, throughout the country. The Capitol, the Supreme Court, too many public inscriptions to mention, all mention God or have religious themes, mottos, or motifs. Any non-religious people visiting these places could feel belittled by the regular mention of God in so many places. It is shameful that we Americans have permitted this sort of persecution to go one for so long.
- Invalidate all public holidays. Christmas and Thanksgiving are obvious...they're religious holidays. Yeah, yeah, Hanukkah and Kwanza are around the same time, but again, RELIGIOUS holidays. How about Washington's birthday, Lincoln's birthday...Washington and Lincoln were Christian men, and we can't be glorifying such men. Martin Luther King Day...Martin Luther King was a VERY religious man. New Year's? New Year's was born from non-Christian religions, and any government support of any religion is unconstitutional. Memorial Day? Most of the men who fought for our country were religious...and frankly, given what they saw and experienced in doing that fighting, I don't blame them. But we can't be supporting that sort of thing any longer. Labor Day? Many workers are religious...again, a big no-no here. Independence Day? As we've established, America was founded by religious men, and most of the original colonists were religious folks, so it's probably best that we don't celebrate that type of thing...don't want anyone to get offended or feel we're trying to force any kind of belief system on them. In light of all of these issues, it would be best to just tell people they can add eight personal days to their vacation time and let them use them as they wish. No one could be offended by that, eh?
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There are those who tout freedom of religion, and I'm all about that. But America really was founded as a Christian nation, not necessarily in the way that Afghanistan or Iran were formed as Islamic nations, but certainly with that as the common theme and background of nearly all of America's immigrants for its first 180-190 years of existence. So it really isn't quite as simple as everyone seems to believe. I wrote the above words to remind everyone, on both sides, what really is at stake here. Some of the above examples are a bit extreme, but each example was equally plausible, if the goal were to remove ALL religious references and connotations from government and its extensions. We must realize how pervasive religious beliefs, and particularly Christian beliefs, are in America's history and culture, even today. Even the Supreme Court Building has pictures of Moses with the Ten Commandments, and each session of the court closes with the words, "God save the United States and the Honorable Court."
So, conservatives, it is important to remember that there are yet many in our country who do not believe in these values yet who are just as patriotic about America as we are. We must be gracious and understanding of the arguments of those who feel we're forcing them. Even Christ says that we must choose to follow Him; He does not force humans to believe in Him.
Likewise, liberals, take note: it might seem a simple matter, but it will be much more difficult than you might believe to simply wipe America clean of all such references. You're going up against the very core values upon which this country was founded, and in which a substantial portion of the population still believes. Tread lightly, else you might end up feeling the sting of another old American slogan: "Don't tread on me".
Thanks for reading along today.
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