The Nation is no more; Long live the State
At some point in the not-too-distant past, our Nation splintered. It occured well before Vietnam, government LSD experiments, and even Evlis Presley. In order to explain, we need to understand the difference between a State and a Nation. A State is simply a group of people who have formed together into a political entity. A Nation is a group of people who share a common value system and language.
The United States is a state. There’s no doubt about that. But we haven’t been a Nation for a long time. The first documented occurence of the fragmentation of our Nation occurred in 1940. A group of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Pennsylvania claimed that they would not allow the school system to make their kids say , “under God” while reciting the Pledge. Oh the humanity! A god-fearing group doesn’t want to say “under God.” Odd, but who am I to cast stones? I don’t like my wife telling me to go to the store to buy bread when I was planning to do it anyway.
So the folks in Pennsylvania took their case to the Supremem Court where the majority opined, “[t]he ultimate foundation of a free society is the binding tie of cohesive sentiment.” Basically, if we aren’t all on the same page, sharing the same values, we will no longer be free…or a society.
A few years later the same Supreme Court shot that down when another group of Jehovah’s Witnesses filed a suit against the West Virginia Board of Education. I guess the West Virginia lawyers were better.
It wasn’t until the scourge of McCarthyism that we legislated the requirement of “under God” in the Pledge and “In God we trust” on our currency. Under such despicable settings, it’s tough to make the argument that we should recognize and adhere to the Christian foundation of our Nation. But I am doing just that. Our Christian foundation was set with the first settlers. There were Protestants of all colors looking for religious freedom. There were economically driven adventurers, too, but remember that many of their sails were emblazoned with the red croix-patee (splayed cross) of Christianity.
The Nation was built on the cohesive foundation of Christianity. When that crumbles, the Nation fractures and is no more. Our Melting Pot, the source of so much positive diversity during the formative years of our Nation is now the source of a destructive “diversity.” The type of diversity that brooks no argument from dissenting groups. The type of diversity that adheres to one belief structure, usually in exclusion of all others. The type of diversity that results in divisive action not cohesive action.
Our State is strong, stronger that it ever has been, if you gauge it by sheer fiscal expenditures. Our Nation is sick, though, and I believe perhaps beyond recovery. The current diversity will not allow the cohesive sentiment required to recover. We must get back to true diversity: diversity of thought, welcomed by all, treated as equal and regarded with respect.
But as long as corporations continue to form Diversity Clubs full of single-minded blathering exclusionists and society supports it, our Nation will continue to suffer from the same persistent chest cold (replete with phlegm) from which I seem to be suffering. Maybe justa big bottle of Mucinex will heal our Nation. Can you hock up a liberal like you hock up a loogie?
Posted on May 2nd, 2010 by TheAdamBomb
Filed under: Uncategorized
This article is about as accurate as “The Enquirer” reporting Elvis Presley’s secret baby was found in an Alabama watermelon.
The U.S. “Pledge of Allegiance ” is codified as to it’s wording by law, and the expression “Under God” was added in 1954 by President Dwight David Eisenhower, in response to the incredible fear of communism at that time.
Jehovah’s Witnesses DO NOT CARE what you do, or do not do, and if you want to pledge your allegiance to a canoe, we have absolutely NO PROBLEM with that. Only when you demand Jehovah’s Witnesses to pledge allegiance to that canoe, or a giant stone frog, or a red-white-blue piece of cloth, do we object.
If you are a conventionally understood “Patriot” it is RIGHT AND PROPER to have allegiance to your nation, and defend it with your life … and in fact .. it is a moral obligation.
We recognize that, and do NOTHING to interfere with your practice of that, as you see fit, be you American, Chinese, German, or North Korean. Knock yourself out!
But Jehovah’s Witnesses allegiance is ONLY to Jehovah God and Christ Jesus, and while we care not at all what YOU do, nor do we interfere at any way ….. we very much care what WE do … or what you as a national advocate intend to try and force Jehovah’s Witnesses to do.
The reason the U.S. Supreme Court in 1945 decided that JWs could not be forced to recite the pledge of allegiance .. is that in the previous decision … THEY WERE WRONG.
They admitted their attempt at tyranny, and corrected it.
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Tom, you are correct in that the one fact I put forth (about JWs not wanting to swear “under God”) was incorrect. The JWs at that time filed suit, because they would not swear at all to the the flag of the USA. That does not make my article inaccurate. It makes one fact inaccurate and only partially so, because they did file suit so as not to have to pledge allegiance to an object.
You imply that you are a patriot (although not a “conventionally understood patriot”) because you have allegiance to the U.S. although you will not swear to the flag that represents it. But then you declare that you have allegiance only to God and Christ. And “only” was in big letters, so I took that as an imperative.
So if your only allegiance is to God, but you recognize the moral obligation to have allegiance and support the nation, willing to defend it with your life, how do you reconcile those two opposing viewpoints? If your only allegiance is to God, how can there be a moral obligation to do anything for anybody other than God? Do your kids go hungry, because you’ve got to pray? Do you consider a war justified only if it’s in God’s interest? Wouldn’t that be a crusade? And because the current wars being waged by the U.S. are not religious (at least not by Americans; I can’t say the same for the Islamist whackos), wouldn’t your beliefs declare our war immoral? Because the Islamists have justified the war with their God, does that justification fall in line with your God more than the secular waging of war conducted by the U.S. government?
I’m not a religious scholar, but the logic seems to make 2+2=1/4-inch plywood + a rusty stapler. Translation: it isn’t even in the same ballpark of logic.
I would honestly appreciate a lesson on this. I would like to understand the opposing viewpoint.