"Gol bless Humerika".
What fascinates me about this separation between Church and State is that it is but it isn’t. "Separation" is a mis-nomer because everything is connected.
Before this all happenned Bush, a born-again Christian, was busy rallying the “Armies of Compassion” and establishing Faith based intiatives. Hullo!
Consider that the reverse side of the Great Seal, symbol of our Nation, was often called “the spiritual side”. It featured the Eye of Providence over the Pyramid, and the motto Annuit Coeptiswhich means He (god) has favoured our undertakings.It also featured the date 1776in Roman Numerals, being the date of the Declaration of Independance and the words Novus Ordo Seclorum, which could be translated as A New Order of the Ages.The last revision to this design was made in 1856, but due to the impracticality of stamping both sides of a wax seal, no die of the reverse was ever cut. These symbols found a new home and are now carried around by each one of us every single day - they now appear on the $1 bill. Consider that The Coat of Arms (obverse side of the Seal) is featured as a stained glass window in the Prayer Room at the Capitol.
I know there is a God—I see the storm coming and I see His hand in it—if He has a place then I am ready—we see the Hand. John F Kennedy, 35th US President, paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln in notes on program for prayer breakfast, NY Times 15 May 64
In our home there was always prayer—aloud, proud and unapologetic. Lyndon B Johnson, 36th US President, to Washington prayer breakfast, quoted in Time 3 Apr 64
imho it seems not so much a separation as it is a resolution of a paradox. A remarkable achievement in any culture, but like any resolution this one is a bit messy - it seems to not require eliminating the rhetoric. What does that tell us. In my eyes, the paradox is the tension between Liberty and Equality and the resolution is our Freedom. |
