Posted on 08/13/2018 10:16:13 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Public school officials in Alabama are looking to put God back into their schools through displays of the U.S. motto “In God We Trust” — but critics are speaking out against the move, calling it “a constant push for theocracy.”
State lawmakers in February approved legislation allowing such displays on public property. The motto soon could become more common in Alabama schools, Al.com reported, with legal challenges expected to follow.
Blount County’s school board is poised to become one of the first systems to take action, the news site reported. A policy on the issue could be drafted within the next month, Superintendent Rodney Green said.
Observers view Blount County as a testing ground for the upcoming legal battles with organizations that advocate for the separation of church and state.
“You would think that something that passes the Legislature won’t be challenged in the courtroom but we all know that it can and probably will,” said Green, who oversees a school system with more than 7,800 students spread out over 17 schools north of Jefferson County.
State Rep. David Standridge, R-Hayden, sponsored the original legislation that gives public bodies the right to display the “In God We Trust” motto. The Alabama law took effect July 1.
The Alabama legislation is not a mandate, and is a lighter version of what was approved by Tennessee lawmakers this spring that requires the motto’s prominent display inside all public schools.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The critics claim national politics are fueling efforts to incorporate the motto or Christian symbols in government buildings.
“It’s a tsunami of Christian national laws in our country right now,” said Annie Laurie Gaylord, co-president of the Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation.
“The upcoming election will say a lot about the direction of our nation,” she added. “With the Republicans in charge of Congress and so many of these states, we are seeing a constant push for theocracy.”
“All others must pay cash!”
Hey, where’s the boy who wrote that underneath? He’s in a lot of trouble....
Sadly and reluctantly, I’m not really hot on such civic moves at this point. Better no civic talk about God than talk that is hypocritical and dishonors Him.
Through a series of missteps and divine chastisements in my life, I have discovered painfully more about what He wants glorified and what He doesn’t.
God wants the old time religion that is from the heart, not from the head, and it conforms to this: Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God our Father is to visit widows and orphans in their distress, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
There’s an old preachers’ anecdote about a man who wanted to travel to Mt. Sinai. “I’ll shout the Ten Commandments from the mountain top!” His wife countered gently and lovingly, “Wouldn’t it be better to stay right here and keep them?”
Christ is the only One who, believed on at a total trust level, will give us a life that looks like the Ten Commandments (ceterus parabus, given the universalization of the Sabbath rest testified to by the book of Hebrews — as Spurgeon put it, every day is now [the Lord’s day]). Let’s get so “fundamentalist” that not just our piety, but also our love, starts looking like Christ’s too.
God bless everyone large and small.
Yet, America's Founders acknowledged a higher power than themselves in requiring that "the People's" representatives in government, in order to hold office, must take an "oath" of office.
That oath of office required representatives of "the People" was intended to be sacred and binding, because that oath is a vow before the "Sovereign" of the Universe, and its violation carries penalities both human and Divine. President George Washington described it in this manner:
"Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths?"
For an amazing history lesson and sermon by the Rev. Benjamin W. Arnett, readers might want to visit the Library of Congress and read the entire text of his Centennial Thanksgiving Sermon, paying special note to the excerpts below which discuss and describe the nature of the oath:
From the Library of Congress: African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A.P.Murray Collection, 1818-1907
Centennial Thanksgiving sermon,: delivered by Rev. B.W. Arnett, B.D., at St. Paul A.M.E. Church, Urbana, Ohio
Excerpt from P. 31, in which he is discussing the Declaration of Independence:
"We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare: That these United Colonies are and of right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as Free and Independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, and in a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." - JOHN HANCOCK.
Arnett continues:
"And the names of the whole Congress followed. You see that there is Divinity in this immortal document. Can we find in the "Articles of Confederation" anything to support the position that the founders of this government intended that it should be a nation for God, and that his religion should have a place in this land. It says: "Whereas it hath pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approve of and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual union." Thus we find this assembly thanking the Governor of the world for inclining the hearts of men. Who can move the hearts of men but God? But we find them in reverence bowing to the Governor of men.
"We now call your attention to the Constitution of the Nation and let us examine that instrument in the light of the men who formed it, and we will see that this was intended to be a Nation founded in Righteousness and Justice. What does the instrument say on this subject:
"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
"Article VI says: "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall be required as a Qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
On Page 37, Rev. Arnett described the nature of "oaths and affirmations" as follows:
"Oaths and affirmations are appeals to God, by him who makes them, that what he has said, or what he shall say, is the truth. It is the most solemn form under which one can assert or pronounce anything, and its violation is a crime of the darkest hue; one which God has declared he will punish; one that is made infamous and punishable by fine and imprisonment, by the laws of the land. Thus Christian obligation is required of every officer of the general Government, who fills any position of trust, honor or emolument. Many reports are required in the form and shape of affidavits."
This is great. Will they try to improve the skills enough to be able to read it?
These tactics are just a distraction. The failure of Alabama’s school systems have nothing to do with Christian values. It has to do with shitty schools.
I might agree partly with the progressives, when they didn’t want the state to be pumping religion. The churches should be, and should have appropriate liberty for that purpose.
This points at a higher power and at the appropriate houses for the organization of worship of that higher power.
It is a balance. The error of the church with respect to Constantine shouldn’t be repeated. This pulled the church into scenes of disrepute and unseemliness.
One cannot force God’s hand, but one can, believingly, beseech it.
If it were possible that all manner of religious displays should festoon our civic halls, I would want, as a lay preacher, to point to all of them and tell all and sundry that something is wanting yet, and that is the heart to God to honor Him in the manner that these displays commemorate.
The ACLU and atheist filth will swoop-in like the maggots and vultures they are, and put an end to that in the courts.
They have nothing to do with SUPERFICIAL “Christian values.”
But the schools will not be laden with ordure if those who conduct them have the ultimate Christian value in their heart, and that is Christ personally.
That’s quite possible, and God allowing that could be a rebuke to the superficial.
What “ACLU and atheist filth” can do nothing about is Christians putting a personal Christ first in their hearts.
This school must make a binary decision: have “In God we Trust” or **not** have it. Neither decision is religiously, culturally, or politically neutral. All schools must make hundreds of decisions regarding curriculum and school policies that are binary and never are neutral in content or consequences.
Solution: Begin the process of privatizing all education.
When government runs schools ( on any level) where children are directly or indirectly forced to attend and citizens are under police threat to pay for it, there WILL be unending conflict over who controls the NON-NEUTRAL curriculum and school policies.
A neutral school is IMPOSSIBLE because such a state of religious, cultural, and political neutrality can not exist in the mind of any sentient human.
Not all Alabama schools are bad. On the contrary, many are very good.
I have enjoyed many of your posts so it would be disappointing if you proved to be the stereotypical Anti-Southern bigot.
Do it, don’t just talk it. God bless America.
Another distraction by pandering politicians. What they should be doing is working to improve student’s math scores.
you said - It has to do with shitty schools.
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You sir/ma’am, are confusing the symptom with the cause.
S#!tty schools are a symptom.
Look deeper than the symptom, and keep looking.
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BTW - my research shows that Florida was the first state to adopt the motto “In God We Trust”. It was more than 100 years before the USA followed suit.
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A case can be made either way as to whether such a motto should be adopted. But note that the majority of those who oppose it so vigorously also seem to have a pro-homosexual, pro-abortion, pro-big-government agenda. Hmmmm ..... those are a few of the problems (symptoms) we see in the public schools.........
I hope you understand.
Not at all. I have Family in the Mississippi Delta and down in Pascagula. What I found troubling about schools in the south was there were so many “private” schools on one side of town—and they looked and felt like every parochial school in New England. The local public schools just looked run down and dreary.
I love the south. In Alabama, I have been limited to short visits to Birmingham. So,I could be generalizing.
Thank you for your reply.
I can’t speak for Mississippi but, here in Alabama, it depends on where you live.
Some towns have very good public school systems and some, unfortunately, do not.
Some of the worst school systems are in the so-called “Black Belt”, which is an area which consists of parts of Southwest and Southeast Alabama. That region is generally poverty stricken and the schools there are as you describe in Mississippi.
While driving to Gulf Shores, I do notice that many of the poorer towns in that area have private schools for the more fortunate children while the Public Schools appeared dilapidated.
OTOH, many schools in places like the Mobile- Gulf Coast area, Huntsville, the wealthier suburbs of Birmingham and other places in North Alabama have good to excellent school systems.
My hometown school in NW Alabama made the list of US News and World Report’s list of “ Best High Schools” several years ago. The town is tiny (approximately two thousand residents) but the school has great resources, such as special classes for Blind and deaf students and special classes for students with speech and physical disabilities.
I do agree that Alabama schools, in general, need improving. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying everything is great. There are many schools in Alabama in dreadful condition and more action needs to be taken.
I just wanted to say that not all Alabama schools are bad. In all honesty it depends on Location.
What you said is true about schools in every state in the Union. Location is everything...
Tennessee has already passed and enacted this. The banners greeted students in every school in my county today
That’s awesome. :) congratulations to your state.
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