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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > One Nation Under God/In God We Trust
 
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WhiskeyJuvenile
Feb 15, 2002

by Nyc_Tattoo

quote:

The words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and the phrase "In God we trust" on the back of a dollar bill haven't been there as long as most Americans might think. Those references were inserted in the 1950s during the Eisenhower administration, the same decade that the National Prayer Breakfast was launched, according to writer Kevin Kruse. His new book is One Nation Under God.

In the original Pledge of Allegiance, Francis Bellamy made no mention of God, Kruse says. Bellamy was Christian socialist, a Baptist who believed in the separation of church and state.

"As this new religious revival is sweeping the country and taking on new political tones, the phrase 'one nation under God' seizes the national imagination," Kruse tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "It starts with a proposal by the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic lay organization, to add the phrase 'under God' to the Pledge of Allegiance. Their initial campaign doesn't go anywhere but once Eisenhower's own pastor endorses it ... it catches fire."

Kruse's book investigates how the idea of America as a Christian nation was promoted in the 1930s and '40s when industrialists and business lobbies, chafing against the government regulations of the New Deal, recruited and funded conservative clergy to preach faith, freedom and free enterprise. He says this conflation of Christianity and capitalism moved to center stage in the '50s under Eisenhower's watch.

"According to the conventional narrative, the Soviet Union discovered the bomb and the United States rediscovered God," Kruse says. "In order to push back against the atheistic communism of the Soviet Union, Americans re-embraced a religious identity. That plays a small role here, but ... there's actually a longer arc. That Cold War consensus actually helps to paper over a couple decades of internal political struggles in the United States. If you look at the architects of this language ... the state power that they're worried most about is not the Soviet regime in Moscow, but rather the New Deal and Fair Deal administrations in Washington, D.C."

So both "in god we trust" and "one nation, under god" are recent inventions. It seems that many of the legal challenges against these phrases have come from atheists challenging the government's ability to generically recognize religious belief. These challenges have uniformly failed.

I'd like to take a different approach: these phrases represent a specific doctrinal faith and are not merely substanceless deism.

"In God we trust" denies my Jewish faith. The Talmud teaches, in the story of the Oven of Aknai, that the Rabbis were debating whether a particular oven was suitable for use in preparing food according to ritual law.

All the rabbis but one, R. Eliezer, argued that the oven was impure. R. Eliezer, however, argued that it was not impure. R. Eliezer, then said "If I am right, let the carob tree prove it," and the carob tree bent. The majority responds, "We do not accept legal rulings from trees." Then R. Eliezer says "If I am right, let the stream flow backwards." It does, with the same response. Then he sys, "If I am right, let the walls of the synagogue collapse." They begin to fall, but R. Yeohshua says, "If Talmudic Sages argue with one another about the law, what business do you have to interfere?" They don't collapse, but out of respect for R. Eliezer, remain leaning. Finally, R. Elizier say "If I am right, let it be proved from Heaven!" A heavenly voice says "Why do you argue with R. Eliezer, seeing that he is right in all matters of law?" R. Yeoshua responds "It is not in heaven." R. Jeremiah explains: the Torah had already been given at Mount Sinai, and we pay no attention to a heavenly voice, because the Torah says "after the majority must one incline."

The Talmud teaches not to trust God, but to trust democracy.

Similarly, "one nation under God" denies my Jewish faith that only one nation - the Jewish nation - is subject to the laws of God, established by the covenant with Abraham, and passed down on Mount Sinai to Moses.

These phrases, therefore, establish a specific doctrinal faith for the nation, and are properly forbidden by the establishment clause. These statements go further than the weak Deism of the founders (e.g., "endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights").

* # ¿ Mar 31, 2015 17:00
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# ¿ May 14, 2024 03:22
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WhiskeyJuvenile
Feb 15, 2002

by Nyc_Tattoo

zeal posted:

Do you actually believe a river flowed backwards and a building started to collapse because a Talmud scholar asked it to, OP?

These are articles of my faith

* # ¿ Mar 31, 2015 17:34
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > One Nation Under God/In God We Trust