Thursday, July 20, 2006

God Wants Us To Pledge Allegiance To Him And Country


Ill: The Worried Shrimp





The same God purportedly responsible for getting Bush & his hordes of Republicons elected now wishes us to be sure to mention Him in the same breath as country--that is, in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Demon Princess has been asked to comment upon this state of affairs as she is supposed to have some special insight (?) into the fact that, for the GOP, it's not enough to merely permit those making the pledge to add a note to the God they worship, if any. No, this GOP insists not only that we all invoke the God of America (Christian), they've tried to wrap it up & make theirs the final word by also legislating that no court can overrule it.

Besides being a stupid political stunt addressed to the distinct minority of evangelical Christians hanging onto the far right flanks (polls consistently show both conservatives & liberals in the mainstream of American thought don't think it's an issue worth getting all that worked up about), D.P. thinks it could raise a separation of powers issue, as well as a separation of church and state issue. Just as George, much as he wants to, can't lock out Congress, Congress can't lock out the courts. Or shouldn't be able to.

But, folks, the God-fearing Christians (or those who merely pander to them) among us who think this legislation is worth the time & public resources it's taken to get passed also know that by the time a court gets around to ruling on it, it really won't matter, because the crucial elections of November will have passed & by that time, all but the crackpots will have forgotten all about it.

Not to mention that I don't think God really cares what we name him--that's a minor distraction firmly of the human, not the divine--realm. Some people waste a lot of time worrying about whether they've got the "right" religion, by what name we call the divine, & other picayaune doctrinal matters. Demon Princess, on the other hand, thinks that her conceptualization of God is wise enough to understand that those are all minor concerns only really small-minded humans would fuss about so much.

Are we launching another Crusades? We know how well that worked all the other times, don't we? And isn't a little arrogant of them to think they can reliably read God's mind?

Jesus said, "Render unto Ceasar what is his," & though I'm not a Biblical scholar, I take that to mean not only taxes but all wordly political matters, & especially inane ones such as this.

3 Comments:

Blogger Paul said...

"Just as George, much as he wants to, can't lock out Congress, Congress can't lock out the courts. Or shouldn't be able to."
That's what I wanted to know. Congress makes law and the courts interpret the law and the police enforce it. It didn't seem right to me that they cut out the interpretive body. Just another undercut of the courts similar to the 3 strikes law. And you didn't have any insight in the matter? Thank you.
As for the god part. Arghhhhhh. Some of out here are somewhat offended by the idea of making laws based on the edicts of supernatural beings. And if there really is a god it is more likely a she.

7:04 PM  
Blogger Demon Princess said...

Glad that I could help :) Actually, IMHO, the absolute worst thing the neocons have done to this country is to try to blur the lines between the executive, Congress & the courts. As Glenn Greenwald (a civil rights attorney who has a blog called Unclaimed Territory) has said: "that leaves us with NOT a president, but a despot." And that would be why I'm continually freaking out lately.

P.S. Glenn generally addresses legal issues in far greater depth than I. I to try to keep things at a common sense level & focus more on what legal developments mean in terms of Real Politik than the sometimes-arcane legal arguments for & against. If ever you want to know about a legal issue in more depth, I highly recommend his site.

And I appreciate your comments, Paul--thanks!

10:37 PM  
Blogger Demon Princess said...

Well, except for calls to assisinate Supreme Court justices & federal judges who don't agree with them, (Coulter & DeLay)...

But that's only going to piss the judiciary off, big-time. So I hope thehy keep it up, Crank.

12:30 PM  

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