Overthrowing The American Theocracy

By Skeeter Thompson Sat Nov 26, 2005 at 04:17:46 PM EST

It is said that the United States was forever changed by the tumultuous period known as “The Sixties,” but in fact a greater change came in the earlier 1950’s when, during a period known as the McCarthy Era, our oldest secular American traditions were cast aside and the first unified American theocracy was installed.

The purpose of this essay is to convince you of four things:

1. If you are an American reading this, you are today living under a specific variety of theocratic government. (1)

2. “Overthrowing the American Theocracy” means restoring secular American government as the Founders intended it established by our Constitution and Bill Of Rights.

3. The restoration of secular government in America is a legal and political exercise involving the free expression of ideas, not of violence.

4. Secular government in America cannot be restored without theist and, specifically, Christian help.

Now let’s talk a bit about where we were, what happened, where we are now, and what we can do about it together.

WHERE WE WERE

In 1787 our Constitution outlawed any “religious test” as qualification to any “public trust” under the United States. (Article VI, Section 3)

Then, in 1791, Article I of the Bill of Rights forbade any “establishment of religion” by the government and guaranteed “the free exercise” of religion by individual citizens.

If you are an American, do you honestly feel that your “public trust” is not tested in any religious way by your government today?

What about the “under God” verbal test which comes when you offer your Pledge of Allegiance to your country?

What about the “trust God” test you take each time you use a dollar bill, or a dime?

* *

Are you among those who believe that saying and using God’s name in government credos is somehow…not religious?

What do you think God would say about this question?

WHERE WE WERE: PART II

Many Founders of the United States were devout people who counted a Creator as important to their lives. We also know they fled “the old country” to escape state-sponsored religious persecution.

In dealing with the unification of disparate colonies, the Founders dealt as well with the pacification of many sects of Christianity, and of some non-Christian sects, such as deists. There were Unitarians to contend with, who denied the divinity of Christ. There were Baptists. Quakers.

Each sect had its own definition of what Christianity, God and religion really meant; each was equally fervent in its beliefs.

Pro-religion sentiments from certain Founders can be lined-up from here to Hoboken, but to learn what the authors of our Constitution thought about mixing religion with government we must turn to where Newt Gingrich sent us: The Federalist Papers.

Try it yourself. Purchase an inexpensive copy of The Federalist Papers at your local bookstore. Go to the Index and look under “religion” to read what The Founders had to say about the topic.

James Madison, “Architect of the Constitution:”

“A zeal for different opinions concerning religion…[has] divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.” (Paper No. 10)

There was also Alexander Hamilton, who in Paper No. 69 describes the English Monarch as “the supreme head and governor of the national church.” This in contrast with the U.S. President: an “officer elected by the people” with “no particle of spiritual jurisdiction” over the U.S. citizenry.

* * *

Our Founders were serious about keeping government completely out of the business of expounding religious doctrine.

In their time, there were no state-sanctioned inscriptions, mottos, currencies or oaths which mentioned God at all. The one national motto, E Pluribus Unum, was in secular Latin, and meant “Out Of Many, One.”

Then, as now, individual politicians expressed their views of divinity in public utterances — individual religious expression was and remains protected by the Free Exercise clause. But official government dicta on God was considered an establishment of religion by the state and strictly prohibited by the Constitution.

It was the first entirely secular government created on the face of the planet, and one of the greatest human accomplishments of all time.

All of it done to protect the wide variety of religious belief deeply held by individual American citizens.

WHAT HAPPENED

Did you know that Teddy Roosevelt said it was nearly sacrilege to stamp “In God We Trust” on American coinage?

What do you think about Teddy Roosevelt? Good man? Rough Rider? A Christian man?

Teddy Roosevelt was all this and more: he was a man who understood religious teachings.

In a letter to William Boldly of November 11th, 1907, Teddy Roosevelt wrote:

“My own feeling in the matter is due to my very firm conviction that to put such a motto on coins…not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege….”

Why did Jesus cast merchants out of the temple of God?

“And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves….” Matthew 21:12 (KJV) Why did Jesus say:

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24 (Ibid)

Is it right to mix God and mammon (2) by printing God’s name on money? Does God find this pleasing?

Teddy Roosevelt did not think God found it pleasing to print the Holy Name on coinage used to buy everything from Jack Daniels to toilet paper to prostitutes. This view was part of his Christian religious doctrine.

But Rev. M. R. Watkinson from Ridleyville, Pennsylvania had a different doctrine. In 1861 Rev. Watkinson believed that adding God to American money would “place us openly under…Divine protection.”

Rev. Watkinson thought God would like being used to pay the bills!

You can read the whole history here at the government’s own site:

http://www.treas.gov/education/fact-sheets/currency/in-god-we-trust.html

Note the word “under” used by Rev. Watkinson in reference to divinity in his citation above. It’s the way they thought about God in those days — back in the 19th century before man had flown in space.

At that time people really believed that God was “up there” with we humans “down here” on earth, living beneath a divine presence in the sky.

It’s the only physics they had at that time by which to understand divinity: 19th century Newtonian physics. They didn’t understand that everything was actually floating about in space, where up and down exist only as measured in relative position.

Today “up” is more properly understood as “out,” and God, for many people, exists “within” as well as “without.”

Did anyone in 19th century America consider the teachings of Jesus about human relation to divinity when they described their relationship with God? Or were they mentally locked into a “scientific” way of thought about the universe — without the benefit of new discoveries from the upcoming 20th century?

Religion, as the Founders understood and the Supreme Court has recognized, is all about the way people think regarding divinity.

In majority decisions recent Supreme Court Justices have said they hold “religion” to be a deeply held personal idea, belief or concern regarding divinity.

“…religious belief…is reserved for the conscience of the individual…”

“…religious choice being the prerogative of individuals under the Free Exercise clause.”

–Justice David Souter for the majority (McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky, No. 03-1693)

“…we have kept religion a matter for the individual conscience, not for the prosecutor or bureaucrat.”

–Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, concurring opinion

The problem is, once the government says something — anything — about God, the utterance will of necessity be viewed as a sacrilege by someone, somewhere…here in our own country and also abroad.

The Founders knew this, which is why their government was silent on the matter of God. They did not wish the government to interpret the nature or quality of God in any way: this was a matter left to individual citizens, families, churches and sects.

Remember our question? What did Jesus say about the 19th century Newtonian-American idea that humans are uniquely situated “under” God?

Check it for yourself at The Bible Gateway:

http://www.biblegateway.com

A simple scan reveals that Jesus never said we are “under God.”

The individual who most famously made this statement was Abraham Lincoln, during his Gettysburg Address in 1863. Just about the time Rev. Wilkerson was placing Americans “under…Divine protection” in 1861.

What Jesus said about our relation to God was something entirely different:

“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:21 (Ibid)

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit….”John 15:5 (Ibid) In other words Jesus, being God, says that we are all a part of God: He is the vine, we are the branches. He also says the kingdom of God is to be found within us.

Why does the U.S. government continue to preach a particular, specific, and Biblically innaccurate “under” relationship of our people to God?

Why are are those who accept the teaching of Jesus that we are all a part of God made second-class citizens in these United States?

Why, indeed, are Americans who locate God’s kingdom within themselves left out of the government’s loyalty oath to their country?

WHAT HAPPENED: PART II

Your author has searched the records for official government-sponsored doctrine regarding the nature of God utilized prior to the addition of “In God We Trust” to the two-cent coin in 1864, and found nothing.

To be clear:

From the adoption of the Constitution in 1787 to the initial use of “In God We Trust” on the U.S. two-cent coin in 1864 — a period of seventy-seven years — there existed no sanctioned, official, state-sponsored doctrine regarding God in use anywhere by the United States government.

Americans during those first seventy-seven years were free to hold their own opinions about God under a secular republic without interference of any kind by the state.

After 1864 “In God We Trust” spread considerably: it was added to other coins, and molded on the faces of public buildings. Thanks to Rev. Watkinson, 1864 is the earliest extant date for the inauguration of a particular and specific version of American theocracy — a government theology that God is a monotheistic entity worthy of human trust. (3)

There it pretty much stood for the next ninety-three years. Then, suddenly, at the end of World War II — all heaven broke loose!

Prompted by a campaign led by the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus — and supported by victorious General and now President Dwight David Eisenhower — an act of Congress was completed on Flag Day, June 14, 1954 which added the theology of Americans placed “under God” to what, for sixty-two years, had been previously a purely secular Pledge of Allegiance to the nation.

In short, the Pledge which had won World War II was abruptly altered by that war’s winners to include a specific idea about the relationship of America to deity which had never before been codified by the government.

“Under God” now became the second doctrinal tenet added to official state theology, rounding-out the fullness of government-sponsored religious ideology.

The American Theocracy was at this point nearing completion, exemplified in two officially-sanctioned doctrines:

1. God is a deity which elicits trust in human beings.

2. Such deity is located “up there” — Americans are “under” God.

From this moment forward, anyone who did not subscribe to these two doctrines regarding God was no longer considered a true American. (4)

What happened next was even more remarkable.

Two years after the Pledge decision, in 1956, the same post-WWII Congress decided that our 180-year-old National Motto, E Pluribus Unum — a motto given to us by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin — was no longer suitable to their taste.

They “retired” E Pluribus Unum (“Out Of Many, One”) as our National Motto and replaced it with — guess what — “In God We Trust.”

From a people united as one nation, despite our many differences, America became instead a nation rent by faith and belief. This because the government elected to institute a specific brand of theocracy as a cold-war measure: one which not all Americans could believe in or accept.

This tragic change did not happen during the 1960’s. “The Sixties” occurred in reaction to what the government had done to repress and divide the nation during the McCarthyite 1950’s.

Soon, “In God We Trust” appeared for the first time on paper currency — dollar bills and higher. Soon, “So help me God,” was added as an official coda to government oaths.

With the blink of an eye the United States became a fully-functioning theocracy with specific and particular religious doctrines universally enforced by mottos, oaths and currencies that could not be escaped. (5)

Here is what President Eisenhower said:

“…We shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war.”

With these words, the Founders’ idea that a President — or any U.S. official — had “no particle of spiritual jurisdiction” over any American citizen…died an ignoble death.

WHERE WE ARE: WHAT TO DO

A decade ago, many Americans were not aware the Founders had established a purely secular state in order to protect the abundant varieties of personal faith held by our earliest U.S. citizens, to thereby promote national political unity.

A decade ago, many Americans were not aware that long-held secular traditions — such as our 180-year-old National Motto of unity — had been pushed aside during the 1950’s as a cold-war offense against “godless communism,” and replaced with state-sponsored religious doctrines of a particular variety and kind.

Due to an ongoing cultural and political debate, Americans across all segments of the political spectrum are now becoming aware of these things.

Today, Marxist ideology — the kind of worldwide statist atheism America once feared — has been defeated by laissez faire or state-modified capitalism in nearly every corner of the globe. America’s major enemy today is a brand of religious fundamentalism: not godlessness.

Sisters and brothers, the situation of America today is this: our great nation speaks out of two different sides of her mouth at the same time.

On one side America extols the virtues of secular government, the majesty of the vote, and religious liberty for all people.

On the other side, at the same moment, she advises the world of her own intimate knowledge of God. Should you, the individual, not agree with her specific precepts, then too bad for you: her doctrine is printed right on the money…take it or leave it.

This is why, in some quarters, our beloved land has been labeled “The Great Satan” — because of this hypocrisy. It’s the great American sacrilege President Teddy Roosevelt warned about: serving God and mammon together in public.

Fellow Americans, the time to end our hypocrisy is now. We can afford to do so. Our faith is such that we no longer require our government to tell us what it is.

“Someone once said that any religion that needs the help of the state is not a very powerful religion.” –Bob Schieffer, CBS News, August 31, 2003. Remember what Jesus said about God’s kingdom in relation to our selves? He did not say we are “under” God. Restore our traditional, secular Pledge of Allegiance before further, irrevocable damage is done to our national spirit.

“…one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Search your heart, deeply. Do you find God within? Restore the Motto of national unity given us by our Founders, E Pluribus Unum:

“United We Stand.”

Bring us together again, as one people, despite our many differences.

CONCLUSION

Those who seek to restore secular government and greater religious freedom to America must adopt this controversial and highly unpopular agenda:

1. Restore our traditional, secular Pledge of Allegiance.

2. Restore our historic and traditional National Motto, E Pluribus Unum.

3. Remove the sacred name of God from all U.S.-minted money.

Doing so will return our nation to the condition of religious liberty which existed under the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses from 1791 to 1864, before the Federal government had established any state-sponsored doctrines about God.

It is clear that state-sponsored religious doctrine represses religious liberty — it does not support it.

It is morally reprehensible for a government to issue doctrine which one citizen considers a blessing but another considers a sacrilege. Such is the case with “In God We Trust.” Such is the case with “Under God.”

Our Founders were wiser than this. They understood that religious faith is a matter of personal interpretation…a choice to be made by individuals, families, churches and sects…not by governments. Therefore, they did not seek to interpret God in official mottos, oaths and credos.

Banning government dicta about God does not bring less religious freedom to citizens, it brings more. It honors God not any less, but rather advances greater glory to the holy spirit of liberty, reverence, worship and divinity.

When government is silent on the matter of God, individual citizens become exponentially more free to profess their faith in the open public square. Just as our Founders intended.

EPILOGUE

Where are the people of faith who will speak these words out loud?

It is the opinion of your author that these Americans are numbered many and their voice is like the timbre of the sea running deep before a coming tide.

These Americans of faith believe they form one part of the whole of God, and act accordingly. They stand upon principle and are not easily moved…nor are they looking for a fight. They ask only to be left undisturbed within the boundaries of their natural rights.

They believe they have a natural right to seek God in their own way, and in their own time.

They believe they have a natural right to establish and maintain an individual and entirely unique relationship with God.

They also maintain the right to be left alone by God at any and all times, should they so choose.

This is the traditional American way.

NOTES:

1. theocracy: government of a state by immediate divine guidance or by officials re- garded as divinely guided. –Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, © 1971

2.. Mammon means “money” in Hebrew.

3.. In clear violation of the Establishment clause, “In God We Trust” creates a particular and distinct religious tenet by postulating a specific type of deity which elicits trust in human beings.

Many Americans of faith, among them American pantheists and Buddhists, practice their religion without a God in whom they place their trust. The chosen faith of these loyal citizens is violated each time they buy a loaf of bread using American currency or coinage.

4. “I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God.” –George H.W. Bush, August 27, 1987. http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/ghwbush.htm

5. In three short years — from 1954 to 1957 — here is what happened:

a. God-relation was added to our previously secular Pledge of loyalty to our country.

b. Our secular National Motto was changed to a religious National Motto.

c. The sacred name of God was printed for the first time on all U.S. paper currency.

d. “So help me God” was added as an official suffix to the oaths of office for federal justices, in violation of Article VI, Section 3 of the Constitution.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/

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