The patriarchs are not an inward people. To them, god is an all-powerful, all seeing entity that must be obeyed; and when god, power and obedience mix in the minds of men, the twisted alliance of church and state gives rise to all the known horrors of human history. To them, power is the manifestation of their god, and since power is irrefutable, their god is irrefutable. Unfortunately, this illogic creates an irreality that blinds them to life. Show them ten million year old fossils and they will invoke their bible as proof that the world is less than ten thousand years old. They herald their Global War on Terror as god's triumphant march on evil yet show them lakes and rivers on fire with industrial pollutants and hear them denigrate global warming as a godless hoax and liberal myth. They are deaf, dumb and blind when it comes to the needs and rights of women and our children, yet demand that they forfeit their health and well-being to the stillborn god of their bible. But by the grace of god, they see witches where there are no witches, terrorists where there are no terrorists, WMD where there are no WMD, and with judicial miracle glasses, see God throughout the Constitution where there is no god. Nor are they able to see the cruel ignorance they stare into each time they look in a mirror. They, the under-Godly, seek power for the pure sake of power--omnipotent, omnipresent, and Totally Depraved. Take away their god and they have nothing, just empty shells without standing in a conscious, and caring world.
So for me and from now on, whenever I am again invited to recite their under-God Pledge, I will not stand, but quietly sit and say to all those complicit in this sanctimonious hijack of our nation, to either shut up and act like an American or get the hell out of our country--and take your goddamn god with you.
Endnotes
[2] Reference to: Puritan John Winthrop 's 1630 sermon , A Model of Christian Charity , ".["].Still aboard the ship Arbella, Winthrop admonished the future Massachusetts Bay colonists that their new community would be a "city upon a hill", watched by the world." 13 Dec. 2010 .
[3] Charles Alan Kors and Edward Peters, eds. Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History , ( University of Pennsylvania Press 2001) 17.
[4] Directorium Inquisitorum , 1578 ed., Book 3, Page 137, Column 1. 13 Dec. 2010 < http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=witch;idno=wit045 >.
[5] Clarence F. Jewett, The Memorial History of Boston: Including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630--1880 , ( Ticknor and Company , 1881) 133-137, 13 Dec. 2010 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials#cite_note-1 >; 13 Dec. 2010 < http://www.salemweb.com/memorial/memorial.shtml >;
13 Dec. 2010 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_executed_for_witchcraft _trials>.
[6] " U.S. Religious Landscape Survey 99--2000," The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 3 Dec. 2010 < http://religions.pewforum.org/reports >.
[7] "American Religious Identification Survey," Trinity College 2008, 13 Dec. 2010 .
[8] California Dept. of Education, State of California Education Profile, Fiscal Year 2008-09 (Sacramento, CA 2010), 13 Dec. 2010 < click here=%2Fprofile.asp%3Flevel%3D04%26reportnumber%3D16>.
[9] United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Newdow v. Rio Linda Union School Dist., 05-17257, 11 Mar. 2010, 13 Dec. 2010 < http://www.becketfund.org/files/majority and dissenting opinions.pdf.>.
[10] . Newdow v. Rio Linda USD 3948, 10 Dec. 2010 .
[11] "Sally Wright, Letter to the Editor, "Writing the Pledge: The Original Intent," N.Y. Times, July 14, 2002, 10 Dec. 2010 .
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