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Health & Fitness

In God We Trust ... All Others Pay Cash

God and religion in our lives and government.

There are two things you steer clear of discussing when you are a bartender, religion and politics. I have noticed both in the bar and in Patch those discussions (or lack of, and mostly just sniping) have become much more prevalent. So I thought, “What the hey! I will just add some fuel to the fire.”

My favorite one is “Separation of church and state.” It amazes me how many think that because of that, we should exclude the word “God” from everything political and law based. There are a couple of things inherently wrong with that though.

One, God is not a religion. God is a deity, and it doesn’t even have to be the Christian deity. God can be from any religion. Not to mention, especially with things such as “In God We Trust” or “God Bless America” does it really matter that much? Let’s face it, we could use all the help we can get.

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Second, this country was founded on a religious basis, as well as most of our major laws, the very rules of our society. They’re based off of the commandments. For a long time in this country, we even had to take an oath in a court of law. It is everywhere.

Not to mention, if you want to blast all religious aspects from government, then you’ll have to start with the constitution. You know, that pesky amendment about freedom of religion. If you want true separation than that has to be changed, and we have to just assume we have freedom of. Not the actual protection of.

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Try not to get me wrong here, I am not religious. I personally believe that most aggressive religious people are at worst nuts, and at best zealots. Remember, . Let’s face some facts, Jesus was exactly that. He rose from the dead, and we are supposed to eat of his body and drink of his blood. Anyone pulled that today, I would say headshot!

That does not mean I am going to sit here and tell you that you are wrong for believing in him. I just don’t care. Pray to an eggplant for all
I care. I can also appreciate the history, and the true faith that goes into it. Hence why God in politics just doesn’t bother me, religion does.

Plus, maybe, just maybe we should spend a lot less arguing about the use of God, and try and use that energy for other things. I don’t know, maybe like starving people. Or making sure our elderly are taken care of. Even I have to admit, that a lot of religions have tried their best to help with this. Some, maybe not so much. I am not sure arguing about God is the post productive use of a politicians time, or mine.

The elephant on this page still stands though. Do I believe in God? No, but as long as he believes in me than I guess I am going to be okay. I still stand for the Pledge of Allegiance whether God is mentioned or not. I will still make and spend money, even if it says “In God We Trust”. Prayer in school? I prayed before every test to anyone who would listen, to hell with what the school said.

Again though, there is a big difference between God and religion. Keep your religion away from me, and I won’t shove my dinosaurs down your throat. Religion is one of the only entities that tends to like to fringe upon where my rights end and where yours begin. Religion really likes to fringe. Fringe a lot.

I guess what I am saying is, in a nut shell, religion is part of politics and vice versa. You cannot eliminate it. At best, one must try and curb its influence in future endeavors. We are one nation under God. Not one Nation under Catholicism, or One Nation under Islam. God is what you make of it; religion is based off a book that was written by men, men who were fallible. Some might even say, like politicians, with an agenda. 

Just because I don’t follow your dogma, does not mean I am a less charitable, less moral, or less of a person than you. It means I was able to find those same morals and such with a different instructional manual. One that wasn’t translated from language to language and written with inherent conflicts and mythic overtones.

Argue all you want, but if we talk to God we are praying, and anyone who God talks to today … We lock in a rubber room and medicate them.

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