Pages

Thursday, 8 January 2009

Deleting God

With less than a fortnight to go before President-elect Obama becomes President Obama – the 44th President of the United States of America – it’s unlikely there’ll be changes to the ceremony to reflect secularism.

But some American humanists and atheists feel there’s no harm in trying, it seems. They want a strict interpretation of the separation of church and state, as called for in the Constitution, and have filed a lawsuit to have the words “so help me God” deleted.

It’s a pity it has to be left to atheists and humanists. We don’t see stories telling us that people in general (whether atheist, Christian, whatever) are calling for this, yet there must be those who, of whatever belief, hold that church–state separation is constitutional and should therefore be adhered to.

Which leaves one thinking that a blind eye can be turned to constitutional anomalies if such anomalies suit those who are turning the blind eye.

No comments:

Post a Comment

We welcome lively and challenging comments. However, please try to stay on topic, be polite and do not use abusive, racist or sexist language, and do not incite your readers to violence or other antisocial behaviour, or your comment will be deleted. This isn't censorship: it's a case of staying within the bounds of decency and having an eye to the law, although we realise the law will be different in different countries.

We do not bar anonymous comments at the moment, but we would prefer that those commenting play fair and use their name or at least a regular nom de plume. It does show a confidence in your convictions. We know, too, that it's easy to use a false name and be effectively anonymous, but, again, we appeal to your sense of good practice. Even a wacky nom de plume is better, since at least readers will come to know that contributor and maybe remember her or his previous comments.

Blatant commercial advertising will be removed.

Comments should not be construed as necessarily the policy or opinion of the Pink Triangle Trust.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.