God Factor

As I was writing my previous post, I was reminded of the story about the late addition of "Under God" into our Pledge of Allegiance so I decided to Google it. Several hours later, I am still fascinated by what I found. I am glad I am off today, because this subject is of great interest to me. Did you know the original pledge (1892) was written by a Christian Socialist? Yep, no Under God in that version.

The God topic is a big one. And probably will will take up several posts. I think this is one of the biggest struggles we Conservatives have in relation to government and politics. To some degree, we are a fragmented bunch. Constitutional Conservatives believe in less government and more personal freedoms. Fiscal Conservatives believe in less government and tight spending policies. Social Conservatives believe in traditional and religious values being reflected in government policies. Libertarian Conservatives believe in free trade and oppose government economic intervention.

But where is God in all of this? The Social Conservatives seem closest to the God Factor, but I don't think that premise was the overall purpose of our Founding Fathers in creating our Nation. They were all Christians, but they didn't want to have a Monarchial Church Nation like the one they came from. I am a practicing, fully operational Christian and would recommend that way of life to anyone who asks me. But I certainly don't want government imposing a morality structure on me even if I totally believed in and practiced the premise that would keep me "legal". What if this country became a Muslim controlled nation and we had to follow their moral laws? Can you say, HELL NO.

So where does that leave God in government? Personally, I think it should continue to be a rigid reference placed in our courtrooms, money, pledge of allegiance, induction into government office and military service and national songs. Make it off limits to everyone once and for all and be done with it. There are bigger things to worry about these days.

But then you start reading why the Left doesn't want God referenced in ANYTHING governmently controlled and you start realizing why it is such a big deal to them. Some of the court cases involve the point that we are "indoctrinating" our children. Well, yes, I guess we are. Patriotism not only involves a salute to the flag of our nation but a salute to a higher power guiding our decisions for virtue, decency and welfare of others for the good of our nation. Those are personal responsibilities of each and every citizen of this country. I certainly don't trust any government not agreeing to those principles. When you take out those guiding lights, what do you have...a nation ready for a new type of leadership. If that doesn't send chills up your spine, I don't know what else will.

Thankfully our Constitution was drawn up by strong Conservatives who believed in a rigid document that would withstand the test of time and could not be changed at the whim of a temporary majority. Will the God factor have the same fate?