It’s rare that I applaud a fool, but this time I think the Lord would as well. Notorious atheist Michael Newdow, he of the easily ruffled sensibilities and eagle eye for stealth Christianity, recently brought yet another lawsuit. No surprise here: the Feds’ money offends him because it bears the motto, “In God We Trust.”
Given the utter fraud that is American currency, such sacrilege undoubtedly offends the Almighty, too. Would you want your name stamped on every worthless scrap of paper or metal the Fed contaminates?
But of course the godless American courts dismissed the case — which should be a clue to every Christian that Newdow’s onto something. Yet believers caterwauled when he initiated this suit and a similar one against the pledge of allegiance. Why?
The pledge is about as anti-Biblical, unconstitutional, and anti-American as the War on Terror — and you needn’t know its history to reach that conclusion. Simply read it: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic” — the government — “for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” What Christian pledges his allegiance — which dictionary.com defines as “the loyalty of a citizen to his or her government or of a subject to his or her sovereign” — to an earthly State? We are subjects of a Divine Sovereign Who insists on undivided loyalty, stipulating that we cannot serve Him and another master. Our allegiance belongs entirely, exclusively, and unequivocally to our Heavenly Father and His eternal kingdom.
But even without that prior claim, why pledge ourselves to the State and its symbol? That’s the sort of thing communists and Nazis do. In contrast, free men and patriots are always at odds with their government since governments by their nature act against liberty’s interests. What conscientious citizen could possibly endorse that, let alone approve so heartily he vows himself to it?
But the pledge becomes even more heinous when we investigate its origins. Francis Bellamy, cousin of the socialist author and advocate, Edward Bellamy (Looking Backward) as well as a rabid socialist in his own right, wrote this drivel specifically to inculcate Americans with what he, Edward, and their fellow-travelers dubbed “Nationalism” — which “signified not ‘my country over others’ but ‘nationalization’ or public ownership and management of the economy,” historian John Baer explains. No more devotion to liberty; the Bellamies’ new American would worship the State and the collective instead. The cousins alleged that “most of the maxims of the business system and its profit motive contradicted the Christian law of love,” Baer notes, “making it impossible for both business and working people to obey the Sermon on the Mount. Socialism would produce a work environment where the Golden Rule would thrive.” As the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Cuba, China, and a host of other brutal regimes so graphically prove.
The Bellamys weren’t the first wackos to pervert Christianity into support for the satanic State, and they won’t be the last. But must modern American Christians gullibly follow their totalitarian trail? Shouldn’t we cheer criticism of the pledge, even if it’s only Newdow’s weak and absurd carping from the wrong motives, rather than hyperventilate as if all that’s decent were under attack?
Ditto for the phrase “In God We Trust.” What blasphemy and presumption to pretend that a nation legally murdering over 1.2 million unborn people each year trusts in God! Do American rulers trust God as they bomb Afghani villages? As they cage men like animals for selling or buying a vegetable? As their monstrous bureau of thieves openly brags about “collecting” $2.3 trillion from Americans in 2009? As they mock His Word and monkeys everywhere by preaching evolution in the public schools? As they equate sodomy with marriage — or were they trusting God decades ago when they secularized that sacred institution? As they sexually assault passengers in airports? Christian, if this is your idea of a nation that trusts God, you aren’t spending enough time in His Word. And if it isn’t, how can you stand to see His precious Name emblazoned on the State’s filth? Bottling water from a toilet and labelling it “Eau de Cologne” doesn’t make it perfume — any more than tagging Caesar’s toys with a hypocritical motto whitewashes the American Empire’s jaw-dropping evil.
Yet believers count it a victory when various courts dismiss Newdow’s cases. Good gracious, people, where is the discernment our Lord commands, the wisdom and reasoning? Behold the rank insult the judges you laud handed our God and Savior: “in a 2-1 decision in October, a[n] … appeals court panel said ‘under God’ was a” — “mere” heavily implied here — “historic, nonreligious recognition of the faith of the nation’s founders in a higher power as the source of all rights. … Judge Carlos Bea wrote that the court recognized in a 1970 ruling that [‘In God We Trust’] has a ‘patriotic or ceremonial character’ and ‘has no theological or ritualistic impact.’” Get it? The Name that is above every name has no more significance to these twits than does “Abracadabra” or “Rumpelstiltskin.” Yet you’re happy they’re forcing kids to mumble and the Fed to imprint money with syllables of “patriotic or ceremonial character” lacking any “theological … impact”?
God save us from such wretched childishness and farce. Instead of opposing pathetic atheists over a socialist’s pledge and an obviously, offensively false motto, Christians should fight Leviathan, its murders, corruption, lies, theft and oppression. Such meaningful battles would be far more honoring to our Creator.
Or do we imagine He’s as silly and easily sidetracked as we?
