John Whitehead's Commentary
Let's Not Make 'God Bless America' An Empty Slogan
"God Bless America" has been taken up as the national slogan and scrawled across billboards, cars, streets--even television commercials. Following the tragic terrorist attacks on our nation, President Bush called on the people of the United States of America to "come... before God to pray for the missing and the dead and for those who love them." And all across our great nation, Americans have answered the call.
Prayers are being offered up and flags are being flown in tribute to a land where freedom and faith are supposed to go hand in hand. Yet while there seems to be a greater tolerance for the expression "God Bless America" since the attacks on our nation, incredibly, restrictions on other forms of religious expression have increased.
For example, when a group of Montana students placed two small paper crosses on a homecoming float bearing the words "God Bless America," teachers at their high school immediately demanded that the crosses be removed. The banner could remain but not the paper crosses.
Similarly, just days after the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, school officials refused to allow a student to gather her schoolmates together in front of the school flagpole to pray for the nation. They finally granted her permission after they were threatened with legal action.
In Rocklin, Calif., an elementary school that posted "God Bless America" on its marquee is being bullied into taking the sign down by the ACLU, which has called the sign "hurtful" and "divisive." The school administration, however, is standing its ground and refusing to remove the words from its marquee. And in many other schools across the country, from Arizona to Illinois, officials are recognizing that not all forms of religious expression are taboo in the school arena and are allowing student-led expressions of "God Bless America."
After years of dispute over the role of religion in our society, after years in which religious expression has been silenced and banned, isn't it high time to acknowledge that God has a place in this country, apart from mere sloganeering?
Although we have long placed our trust in God to steer our nation through many trials and tribulations--even proclaiming "In God We Trust" on our money--still, many individuals and organizations have sought to remove any reference to God in all public places and from buildings.
All too often, they have succeeded. Every year, hundreds of young people of faith who have earned the right to speak at their school's graduation ceremonies, students like Nicholas Lassonde of Pleasanton, Calif., have their speeches stripped of religious references in the name of the so-called "separation of church and state."
And thousands of dedicated public school teachers are ordered not to say so much as "God Bless You" to students and parents for fear of "endorsing religion." New York schoolteacher Dan Marchi, for example, was reprimanded and almost fired simply for writing "God Bless You" to a parent.
Religious individuals are even being treated as pariahs in many non-government-associated workplaces. Kenneth Weiss was fired from his job as a laboratory worker in Palm Beach, Fla., for voluntarily praying with his co-workers and offering a Muslim co-worker a Bible.
Many of the individuals and groups trying to censor the use of "God Bless America" claim to be doing so under the so-called "separation of church and state" doctrine. However, despite the misinformation that so many individuals conveniently seem to propagate, the First Amendment provides freedom for religion, not freedom from religion--and is intended to protect the right of all people to express their religious beliefs, rather than having those expressions sanitized and secularized.
After all, it is our constitutional right to acknowledge God at all times and ask for God's blessing on our country.
Therefore, as we raise our flags in tribute to our nation, we should also be affirming our commitment to ensuring that our citizens can lift up their prayers, freely and without restriction.
We should do this for the two young Americans who were captured in Afghanistan and accused of trying to spread Christianity. We should do this to show the world--especially the Taliban government--that in the United States, we believe in and protect our religious freedom. Most of all, we should do this before another American is silenced in our own country.
At this time, more than any other, we need to show the world that "God Bless America" is not an empty slogan but that it remains a solemn prayer.
Prayers are being offered up and flags are being flown in tribute to a land where freedom and faith are supposed to go hand in hand. Yet while there seems to be a greater tolerance for the expression "God Bless America" since the attacks on our nation, incredibly, restrictions on other forms of religious expression have increased.
For example, when a group of Montana students placed two small paper crosses on a homecoming float bearing the words "God Bless America," teachers at their high school immediately demanded that the crosses be removed. The banner could remain but not the paper crosses.
Similarly, just days after the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, school officials refused to allow a student to gather her schoolmates together in front of the school flagpole to pray for the nation. They finally granted her permission after they were threatened with legal action.
In Rocklin, Calif., an elementary school that posted "God Bless America" on its marquee is being bullied into taking the sign down by the ACLU, which has called the sign "hurtful" and "divisive." The school administration, however, is standing its ground and refusing to remove the words from its marquee. And in many other schools across the country, from Arizona to Illinois, officials are recognizing that not all forms of religious expression are taboo in the school arena and are allowing student-led expressions of "God Bless America."
After years of dispute over the role of religion in our society, after years in which religious expression has been silenced and banned, isn't it high time to acknowledge that God has a place in this country, apart from mere sloganeering?
Although we have long placed our trust in God to steer our nation through many trials and tribulations--even proclaiming "In God We Trust" on our money--still, many individuals and organizations have sought to remove any reference to God in all public places and from buildings.
All too often, they have succeeded. Every year, hundreds of young people of faith who have earned the right to speak at their school's graduation ceremonies, students like Nicholas Lassonde of Pleasanton, Calif., have their speeches stripped of religious references in the name of the so-called "separation of church and state."
And thousands of dedicated public school teachers are ordered not to say so much as "God Bless You" to students and parents for fear of "endorsing religion." New York schoolteacher Dan Marchi, for example, was reprimanded and almost fired simply for writing "God Bless You" to a parent.
Religious individuals are even being treated as pariahs in many non-government-associated workplaces. Kenneth Weiss was fired from his job as a laboratory worker in Palm Beach, Fla., for voluntarily praying with his co-workers and offering a Muslim co-worker a Bible.
Many of the individuals and groups trying to censor the use of "God Bless America" claim to be doing so under the so-called "separation of church and state" doctrine. However, despite the misinformation that so many individuals conveniently seem to propagate, the First Amendment provides freedom for religion, not freedom from religion--and is intended to protect the right of all people to express their religious beliefs, rather than having those expressions sanitized and secularized.
After all, it is our constitutional right to acknowledge God at all times and ask for God's blessing on our country.
Therefore, as we raise our flags in tribute to our nation, we should also be affirming our commitment to ensuring that our citizens can lift up their prayers, freely and without restriction.
We should do this for the two young Americans who were captured in Afghanistan and accused of trying to spread Christianity. We should do this to show the world--especially the Taliban government--that in the United States, we believe in and protect our religious freedom. Most of all, we should do this before another American is silenced in our own country.
At this time, more than any other, we need to show the world that "God Bless America" is not an empty slogan but that it remains a solemn prayer.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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