WMDLIAR

Why are the words "In God We Trust" engraved over the backdrop of the Senate? Could this Constitutional violation be more blatant? And to think our Senator see this every session and do nothing?! Where are the ethics?

Korimyr the Rat

This is a non-issue. As long as it is American law being enforced inside our courtrooms and not Judaic law, then the words "In God We Trust" on the outside are neither an establishment of religion nor a violation of our civil rights.

I don't favor my tax monies being used to build religious monuments, but I'm not so offended by them that I favor my tax money being used to destroy them, either.

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Simon W. Moon

I forget the exact term atm, but it's what amounts to a cultural vestige and is just for show and therefor is allowed

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tryreading

Similar to your subject, there are other religious practices that became intertwined into and approved by government even though they were illegal. The below link shows a brief commentary on the subject. One illegal practice is paid chaplains in the government and military. James Madison fought against this for Constitutional reasons, but the majority forced it through and to hell with the Constitution. After there was no going back, Madison relegated the practice to de minimus non curat, or 'too unimportant for the law to bother with.'

We saw the danger of the military chaplains a couple of years ago when some chaplains were trying illegally to prosyletize non-Christians. They were intimidating people, affecting their jobs. That's why the Constitution has two warnings against intermixing religion in government.

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Korimyr the Rat

It wasn't just chaplains, and this problem is fairly recent. It is a result of some of the political megachurches to subvert the military-- they were also paying officers (in other MOS) to proselytize in uniform on video.

I don't actually object to chaplains. They're of great comfort to our soldiers, in most cases regardless of religious faith or lack thereof.

tryreading

Wasn't just Chaplains, but was also the officers the Chaplains persuaded to convert people. One Navy chaplain, Klingenschmitt, disobeyed direct orders not to pray in Jesus' name. I know about the video you mentioned, but the practices I'm talking about are separate.

Part of a transcript about the prosyletizing problem:


CALLEBS: One who is speaking out, Captain Melinda Morton. After serving as a missile launch officer, she became a chaplain late in her career.

MORTON: I had no less than three of my fellow chaplains come to me and ask me how in the world I thought I could -- I would consider myself to be a Christian if I didn't believe that we ought be hoping and praying that everyone at the Air Force Academy would be Christian.

CALLEBS: After two-and-a-half years at the academy, Morton, a Protestant chaplain, is making her concerns public.

(on camera): One of your colleagues told us, evangelicals can't check their religion at the door. Should the academy force them to check their religion at the door, to separate church and state?

MORTON: To associate your power and position with a religious agenda in the military is inappropriate. And it is against regulations.

CALLEBS: But it happens at the Air Force Academy.

MORTON: Yes, it does.

CNN.com - Transcripts


I'm sure they are comforting to the soldiers who are religious. But the legality of their existence in the military is my problem.

rathi

I'd rather have the wording changed to " in the constitution we trust". But its such a minor issue that I don't really care much about it.

Chaplain should be kept as long as they continue to provide morale benefits to the soldiers. However, regulations should be enforced to prevent religion from interfering with their work. Putting your religion ahead of your military duties is moving down the path to treason. Soldiers are soldiers first and everything else second.

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He'd be right at home on some ancient battlefield, swinging an axe into somebody's face.

tryreading

Your wording is perfect. But I think its more important than you do.

There were and are regulations in place, but some of the Chaplains violated them because their way is the right way is the only way...

The violators are control freaks, and some will continue to break rules because they know better than everybody else on Earth.

That's why your wording should be used in this country instead of the phrase that a pandering, disloyal Congress chose in 1954. Or, go back to the proper, original motto, which is E Pluribus Unum. How could a McCarthy-imitating Congress hope to do better than the men who formed the country?

nort_12345

i don't support "in god we trust" on any gov. building, money, or anywhere in which it violates the separation of church and state.

i would prefer, "In the people we trust"

hypgnostic

I agree. Wasn't this obvious religious slogan added only at the beginning of the 1900's?