The Separation.
The city of Lake Forest has divided its citizens by making the motto ‘In God we trust’ official decor on the walls of its City Council’s chambers.
This close vote has wiped the dust off of this issue with passionate pleas for reason from those for and against this controversial proposal.
But why all the affray? This world is full of humans and according to religioustolerance.org, eighty-seven percent of those folks practice some kind of faith or belief while 12.7 percent have no belief.
This country’s history is mortar’d with the recognition of an ever-present and active God.
Our currency banners this statement and has become the international trading currency, used openly for trade by countries having Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Judaic based societies.
These honorable words have not hindered trade to these lands with their own beliefs that contain their own honorable words.
Our courts of law swear in testimony using the Holy Bible to ensure truth through the knowledge of divine consequence for bearing false witness.
I come from the understanding that Americans are free to individually cast their vote, their belief, on who is best qualified to represent themselves in decisions made by those elected for the land within its city limits.
Thus, the elected officials of the Lake Forrest City Council making such decisions with the power vested in them.
So how does a city with only 44.8 percent of its citizenship having any kind of religious affiliation, (according to city-data.com), pass this kind of decision? Simply put, the voters who squeak get the grease, or better yet, if you don’t vote, don’t preach.
The term Separation of Church from State first appears in a phrase written by Thomas Jefferson in a letter written to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802, “…I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ this building a wall of separation between Church and State.”
This clearly states that there should never be a Federal Church of America while not prohibiting citizens from creating a ‘First Baptist Church of America.’
The Separation of Church and State was never meant to extract all spiritual expressions from government that are consistent with our culture, our humanity and our supernatural identity.
And which non-believer has been able to disprove God, despite The Almighty’s apparent absence in the face of all creation when summoned by those who demand instant proof? Who? No, not one of you.
But the Lake Forrest City Council’s argument was lukewarm at best. Newly elected Councilmen Scott Voigts insists that this wasn’t a religious maneuver. He explains how this was a gesture to ensure a sense of national heritage.
If this is so, a phrase from George Washington, Benjamin Franklin or General George S. Patton would suffice.
If Voigts wanted to use the words, ‘In God we Trust’ because he believes in God, then he should plainly and clearly say so without hiding behind words like ‘national heritage.’ He should remember, not one of the disciples of the New Testament was an American, so nationalism or even patriotism has nothing to do with placing your trust in God.
But this majestic country was founded on the principals of free speech for all opposing views on any given issue. And if anybody is unsatisfied by what your elected officials are doing, then do what most churches do; inform the public and get people to vote.
I am confident that the more God
is removed from the fabric of conscience of our government, the people and the land will degenerate further and will become more and more vicious.
I do not trust a godless government and the brutality that would come from one. I believe any society that is left to its own earthly, non-spiritual devices have and will fall again and again. And I don’t trust modern man to bring about Utopia in even a 10 square mile area anywhere on the face of the planet.
In God I trust.
