Church and State - So Happy Together

Meanwhile, back in the present. . . . Roy Moore, the suspended chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, and his supporters are all in a hissy-fit about the monument of the Ten Commandments being removed from a state judicial building by federal court order. Moore's attempt to keep the monument in its place is one of the most obscene violations of the separation of church and state in this country since Tuesday. The presence of this monument in a governmental office building had nothing to do with acknowledging God in a public space, as Moore claimed. It was about a government office holder endorsing Judeo-Christian tradition over other religious traditions, in violation of the clause in the First Amendment that no law shall be made establishing an official religion or acknowledging one faith over others. Moore had shown contempt for non-Western faiths, refusing to allow any acknowledgment of the Koran on state property and asking if Hinduism was even a religion. The ideal is that government should get out of acknowledging religion in any way, shape or form and let Americans worship as they please. As the Reverend Barry Lynn, leader of Americans United For the Separation of Church and State, pointed out, this is precisely why we Americans are the most church-going people in the West.

It's time for the government stop endorsing any kind of religion. That includes getting the words "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance (added in 1954 as a talisman against Soviet atheism and agnosticism in general) and removing the official motto "In God We Trust" from our currency (and making E Pluribus Unum, Latin for one formed from many, the official motto instead). Placing the words "In God We Trust" on our coinage and paper currency appalls me. I learned in Sunday school that money is the root of all evil. So why does our money mention God on it??