PUBLIC VIEWPOINT: Why Should God Bless The US?

Posted: November 16, 2009 at 5:31 a.m.

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LITTLE ROCK — As often as I hear the phrase, ‘God bless America,” I ask the question, “Why should He?” Many of your readers apparently Thank God that our founding fathers were not Christians. So why would God want to bless a nation whose citizens are offended by the thought of His past blessings?

Some of the letter writers and columnists even reject the idea that religious ideals helped shape the founding principles of this country. The Golden Rule should never be considered as a founding principle of the preamble of the constitution of the United States, nor an application of the principles set forth in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence.

They must believe that the delegates of the various conventions were such good moral men that they had no need of God or religion in their lives. Churches would have been tolerated for the benefit of weaker men who could not trust in the virtues of their own rhetoric.

In hindsight, the educated among us realize that this freedom of religion should have never been allowed. It has led to the global propagation of Christianity and the writing of it’s virtues into our common history. Now we can’t even exchange currency, inaugurate a president, or open the Senate without looking to their God.

Why can’t we be sensible like the North Koreans? We should stop the nonsense and start praying to Jefferson and the Founding Fathers. After all, if it was their virtues that formed America, we need their blessings.

JAMES JOHNSTON / St. Paul

Opinion, Pages 5 on 11/16/2009

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