The "God Bless America" test

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
~Thomas Jefferson


Something has been bothering me for a while now. It is not that I have let this blog go unattended for almost a year (although that is a shame too). No, the thing that is bugging me, and the resultant question I have is this: when exactly was the law passed that states that every politician running for, or holding public office has to invoke the name of God at least once when giving a public speech? (this may be a little hyperbolic but it feels close to the truth). And why is it that after every speech The President of the United States has to say "God Bless The United States of America"? Is this to remind God, lest he shirk his duty to bless us? I don't know when this became seemingly required, but I bet the whole business got started after the terrorists attacks of 9/11/01. The terrorists were claiming God, and we had to claim him back. I don't have problem this in the short term. It's kind of like what U2 said when it recorded Helter Skelter: "Charles Manson stole this from The Beatles and we're stealing it back". I get it. God is good. But in this country we are hearing more and more from politicians that this is a "Christian nation". This is dangerous. One of things that made (and makes) this country great is that our founders set this nation up with the idea of a clear separation between Church and State. This country was to be about Liberty and Freedom. No religious tests, thank you very much.

I opened this blog entry with the above quote by Thomas Jefferson to make the point. And yes this is a shameless appeal to authority: If one the greatest founders of this nation had no problem with his neighbors religion, or lack thereof, why should our currents leaders be so concerned about it?

Food for thought.