CentristFiasco
Member
- Sep 30, 2011
- 240
- 16
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This is the question that I've been trying to answer and as a Christian, this is a tough question to answer. The First Amendment clearly states that Congress should not respect the establishment of religion which is where the "separation of church and state" comes from. In the 1956 ruling, Dwight Eisenhower signed into law from Congress to make "In God We Trust" the official motto of this nation by law. The "El Pluribus Unum" motto was never an officially established law but it was informally our motto since the American Revolution.
As I do my research I'm realizing that this particular motto holds to American values very dearly in regards to independence, liberty and brotherhood amongst your fellow man (mankind). The "In God We Trust" motto holds to American values too but its often narrowly defined; in the 1950s, the perceived majority in the United States were Christians but this isn't entirely true. This is often classified as a generalization because by using logic, you don't have to necessarily Christian to be a strong advocate for family values and the like. A matter of fact, Christianity may be a dominated religion in the United States but that doesn't mean the majority of the Citizenry follow it.
The majority of the Citizenry do believe in a Higher Power, God or Supreme Being though in which sort of justifies the motto but if you look at the trend in the U.S. Congress in the 50s, the majority of them were Democrats (Southern and Northern) who held particular religious views. The fact that I'm trying to bring here is that the intentions of the Congress at this particular time with the perceived notion could in fact be a violation of the First Amendment. Now, if somebody in Congress today would challenge this law to the Supreme Court to give a definition on the term, "God" whether it refers a God of a certain religion or not, the law simply cannot be justified on Constitutional grounds.
Thus, I conclude that this law is unconstitutional. What do you think of this issue? I've taken the initiative to create a more articulated petition about this issue with language that would most definitely received a better response. There are petitions that address this issue on the White House site but they are quite frankly, not very articulated and lack substance to the extent they don't demand anything in specific except "remove the motto". My petition is more grounded into law and the respect to the Constitution by repealing a law in such language in which I believe people can accept and hopefully receive enough signatures to get a response. If you're wanting to support this cause, I suggest you sign the petition and help promote it. If you know any organizations, I don't care if their exclusively non-religious but tell them to promote this petition too. This sort of thing should get attention and we need a response from the Obama Administration to see where they stand and how far will they go. It is an election season you know...
Link: http://wh.gov/bSz
As I do my research I'm realizing that this particular motto holds to American values very dearly in regards to independence, liberty and brotherhood amongst your fellow man (mankind). The "In God We Trust" motto holds to American values too but its often narrowly defined; in the 1950s, the perceived majority in the United States were Christians but this isn't entirely true. This is often classified as a generalization because by using logic, you don't have to necessarily Christian to be a strong advocate for family values and the like. A matter of fact, Christianity may be a dominated religion in the United States but that doesn't mean the majority of the Citizenry follow it.
The majority of the Citizenry do believe in a Higher Power, God or Supreme Being though in which sort of justifies the motto but if you look at the trend in the U.S. Congress in the 50s, the majority of them were Democrats (Southern and Northern) who held particular religious views. The fact that I'm trying to bring here is that the intentions of the Congress at this particular time with the perceived notion could in fact be a violation of the First Amendment. Now, if somebody in Congress today would challenge this law to the Supreme Court to give a definition on the term, "God" whether it refers a God of a certain religion or not, the law simply cannot be justified on Constitutional grounds.
Thus, I conclude that this law is unconstitutional. What do you think of this issue? I've taken the initiative to create a more articulated petition about this issue with language that would most definitely received a better response. There are petitions that address this issue on the White House site but they are quite frankly, not very articulated and lack substance to the extent they don't demand anything in specific except "remove the motto". My petition is more grounded into law and the respect to the Constitution by repealing a law in such language in which I believe people can accept and hopefully receive enough signatures to get a response. If you're wanting to support this cause, I suggest you sign the petition and help promote it. If you know any organizations, I don't care if their exclusively non-religious but tell them to promote this petition too. This sort of thing should get attention and we need a response from the Obama Administration to see where they stand and how far will they go. It is an election season you know...
Link: http://wh.gov/bSz
