Posted on July 30,
2019
Schooled
Our trust in God is in the Declaration
by
Daniel
Clark
All public schools in the state of South Dakota are
now required to display the words, “In God We Trust,” in a prominent, common area
so that they may be seen by the students.
Naturally, anti-religious, anti-American bigots like the Freedom From
Religion Foundation find this intolerable.
The
FFRF describes this requirement, which was signed into law by Republican Gov.
Kristi Noem, as “inaccurate, exclusionary, and aimed
at brainwashing American schoolchildren into believing that our nation is a
theocracy.” Seriously, for liberal
activists to accuse others of brainwashing schoolchildren is like the Cookie
Monster critiquing someone else’s table manners. How many millions of students have been
“taught” that the universe and everything in it, including human life, came
about by accident? Or that the history
of our nation is one that is primarily characterized by injustice and shame? Or that human prosperity is destroying the
earth? The FFRF itself would have
children believe that the United States was founded as an atheist nation, but
was seized by googly-eyed religious maniacs at some point since.
Later in its cut-and-paste press release, variations
of which it uses for all occasions, the FFRF points out that “In God We Trust”
was only adopted as our national motto during the Eisenhower
administration. Even so, it’s our
national motto, so how can there be any controversy over displaying it in
public schools? Besides, the phrase was
being engraved on our coins as far back as 1864, somewhat earlier than the
“height of 1950s zealotry” the FFRF bemoans.
“In God We Trust” is really just a rephrasing of the clause, “with a
firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence” from the Declaration of
Independence. (So much for its being inaccurate.) Would it be “brainwashing” to post a plaque
in a school bearing that quotation as well?
The real beef the FFRF has with acknowledging God’s
role in our nation’s founding has to do with another reference in the
Declaration, the one that says we are endowed by our Creator with certain
inalienable rights, including the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. That’s because the FFRF was
founded by the late Anne Nicol Gaylor, along with her
daughter, Annie Laurie Gaylor, for the purpose of
preserving legal abortion.
If that sounds terribly convoluted, it shouldn’t. If God is not the source of our rights to
life, liberty and property, then it follows that these rights are granted to us
by our fellow human beings, and thus are subjectively defined and without
permanency. Therefore, they may be taken
away by those who hold sufficient physical, political or other power over
us. Just consider it their “choice.”
One
needn’t be religious to see how such a philosophy would become an open
invitation to tyranny. Even if you’re
totally convinced that there is no God, our founders’ presumption that there
is, and that He is the source of our most fundamental rights, serves to protect
you just as much as it does the next person.
If this protection has the adverse side effect of making you feel
“excluded,” then so be it.
Whenever the FFRF protests any reference to God in a
public context, it’s perfectly aware that it hasn’t got a valid constitutional
point in the world. It typically gets
its way by filing frivolous, harassing lawsuits, the targets of which cannot
afford to defend themselves, so they relent.
For example, the organization is now suing the city of Parkersburg, WV,
to stop its city council from opening meetings with a voluntary prayer, on the
basis that two atheist Parkersburg residents
have somehow or other been “negatively impacted” by the practice. How can that possibly be? It can’t, but so what? The FFRF has the time and money to prosecute
the case, and Parkersburg probably lacks the resources to resist it.
Indeed, such concerns nearly derailed the South Dakota
law, until Gov. Noem and the legislature assured that
the state, and not the school districts, would foot the bill for any resulting
legal action. That’s probably why the
FFRF is not threatening a suit in this case, but is only whining to the
sympathetic media.
The impact of the motto’s display on the students
would have been negligible, but perhaps this dispute over it can teach them a
lesson. It’s all about how people who
disapprove of our nation’s founding are willing to lie about it, and
litigiously bully others into reinforcing those lies, so that they can rob
millions of defenseless children of their God-given right to life.
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