No separation of church and state for you, America.
Well, it’s official. The Obama administration just trashed the petition to remove “under God” from currency.
The brush off was released as follows:
“Thank you for signing the petition “Remove “In God We Trust” from currency.” We appreciate your participation in the We the People platform on WhiteHouse.gov.
The separation of church and state outlined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution is an important founding principle of our nation. Our nation’s Bill of Rights guarantees not only that the government cannot establish an official religion, but also guarantees citizens’ rights to practice the religion of their choosing or no religion at all.
Throughout our history, people of all faiths – as well as secular Americans – have played an important role in public life. And a robust dialogue about the role of religion in public life is an important part of our public discourse.
While the President strongly supports every American’s right to religious freedom and the separation of church and state, that does not mean there’s no role for religion in the public square.
When he was a Senator from Illinois, President Obama gave a keynote address at the Call to Renewal conference where he spoke about the important role religion plays in politics and in public life.
A sense of proportion should also guide those who police the boundaries between church and state. Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation – context matters.
That’s why President Obama supports the use of the words “under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance and “In God we Trust” on our currency. These phrases represent the important role religion plays in American public life, while we continue to recognize and protect the rights of secular Americans. As the President said in his inaugural address, “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers.” We’re proud of that heritage, and the strength it brings to our great country.”
Something tells me most of the petitions on the White House site are going to get brushed away just like this one did. “Thank you for allowing us to pretend that your opinion matters, citizen. Now shut the fuck up and re-elect me.”
Yup. Just re-elect me… Actually I care more about reinstating bank and wall street regulations… And the current administration has a dismal record of any serious attempts at that.
That sucks……. 👿 …….BIG SIGH!
No worries Moose. Us commoners ain’t sending that Republican in Democrats clothing any money. He can ask his Corporate bosses for handouts.
:entertained:
They may as well have said, fuck off you pee-ons. We appreciate your participation- please.
👿
Right, Mr. President, context DOES matter, and here the context makes affirmation of god(s) particularly inappropriate.
The government’s inscription of the phrase “In God we trust” on coins and currency, as well as its addition of the words “under God” to the pledge of allegiance in 1954 and adoption of the phrase “In God we trust” as a national motto in 1956, were mistakes, which should be corrected. Under our Constitution, the government has no business proclaiming that “we trust” “In God.” Some of us do, and some of us don’t; each of us enjoys the freedom to make that choice; the government does not and should not purport to speak for us in this regard. Nor does the government have any business calling on its citizens to voice affirmation of a god in any circumstances, let alone in the very pledge the government prescribes for affirming allegiance to the country. The unnecessary insertion of an affirmation of a god in the pledge puts atheists and other nonbelievers in a Catch 22: Either recite the pledge with rank hypocrisy or accept exclusion from one of the basic rituals of citizenship enjoyed by all other citizens. The government has no business forcing citizens to this choice on religious grounds, and it certainly has no business assembling citizens’ children in public schools and prescribing their recitation of the pledge–affirmation of a god and all–as a daily routine.
and just WHO is a “victim” in the words printed on money?
Its still the same amount of money no matter WHAT words are printed on it.
I think the whole petition is ridiculous PC bullcrap that it seems far left people want to keep going with.
I am just as sick of the tree hugging far left as I am in the far right.
Nobody suffered from saying the pledge of allegiance, either.
In my heyday, people were harmed when they were PHYSICALLY touched, not from having that person read or say a few words.
Talk about melodramatic EMO BS.
Okay, I get it… Not all of us believe in God. But, you see, in this country, it’s also a majority rule. It’s not a thing saying that you HAVE to believe. Many of the founding fathers were more agnostic. Yet 83% of the Americans claim a religious denomination (this includes Christian, Mormon, Jewish, Islam, Buddhism, Shintoism, etc…
We have freedom of religion. 71% of Americans are some form of Christian. 87% of all faith believers believe that there IS a creator, or a God(dess). So, approximately 76% of the whole population believe in a God. It’s not saying you don’t have a right to be a non-believer. Buddhists, Shintos, Native American Spiritualists, some Wiccans, and druids don’t necessarily believe in a God, either.
there are instances where it would be wrong, but other places it’s fine that there is a reference to God. Thing is, too many people want to make religion and politics the same issue based argument, and they’re not. I think Obama should just not run next election, and let Hillary run for president.
The currency motto is representational, & this motto does not represent all citizens. As an extreme but actual historical example, I would tend to be sceptical of government using “Sieg Heil!” or “Heil Hitler!”. Would one be ridiculous to object to such, as they are only words?
My current understanding of the word for the laudable principle Mango types of, protecting minorities from majority oppression, is the word liberal in “a liberal democratic republic”. As he has noted elsewhere, we have often failed in this goal.
As a lifelong professional homosexualist, I can testify about hiding & frequently being punished by the religious and religious-influenced.
It is occasionally commented, and I concur, that an open atheist, and perhaps even an open agnostic, cannot yet win the presidency in our country, and might have trouble even getting into Congress. Thus is Obama electorally wise to maintain the status quo – the religious beg to be led around by the herd mentality nose rings of their anti-science beliefs. So this type also has to hide or be punished.
Just a few weeks ago I had an otherwise pleasant religious man tell me that he would not vote for an atheist. Why? Because, and he repeated this assertion, they might stab him and others, as there is no fear of god to hold them back. Of course, he also informed me that Nicole Simpson deserved to be killed, as she was taking O.J.’s money, but cheating on him with someone else. And while he is not for job discrimination against gays, he does wonder why we can’t all be on one or two islands in The San Juans, to protect his and other children from our defective thinking. Cleverly, perhaps to escape comparison with the worst of religion, he denied his fairly well-known faith is a religion – “It is a way of life.” Somehow, I remain unconvinced.
Though FreeBird’s stridency scares me at times (so does Lethal Ambrose), I am warming up to her. An “Amen” to her comments here, a “Hallelujah!” to Moosehammer’s, and a “Can I get a witness!?” to Mango Chutney’s. See the Bill Maher documentary “Religulous” for further illumination as to the merit of their positions.
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O.k. it’s late and this shit is getting ridiculous.
We’ve established that reprinting money on the normal standard timeline would not cost anything extra to taxpayers. And we’ve established that if something doesn’t offend Metalfan, it’s just everyone else being EMO and they should shut the fuck up and deal with it. And we’ve established that if you speak your mind against religion, you’ll get trolled by a fake stalking profile.
Circular backpedal debating is cheap and not worth my time or effort. I’m gonna go eat some popcorn and watch Scooby Doo now. I’ve got priorities to tend to.
I laughed so hard at all this.