The House of Representatives this evening passed a bill that reaffirms "In God We Trust" as our national motto and encourages the display of that motto in public buildings. The House supported it by a vote of 396 to nine.
The lone Republican "no," Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan, explained his vote (as he promises to do every time) on Facebook:
The nonbinding resolution "encourages the public display of the national motto in all public buildings, public schools, and other government institutions." Displaying "In God We Trust" on public property is appropriate in some circumstances. There is no need to push for the phrase to be on all federal, state, and local buildings.
The fear that unless "In God We Trust" is displayed throughout the government, Americans will somehow lose their faith in God, is a dim view of the profound religious convictions many citizens have. The faith that inspired many of the Founders of this country—the faith I practice—is stronger than that. Trying to score political points with unnecessary resolutions should not be Congress's priority. I voted no.
We'll have more on the show tonight.
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Can he be turned from the dark side?
Although I'm not with you on the "dark side" implications, I am with the majority here thinking that this vote was just plain unnecessary at best, just plain dumb closer to the other end of the spectrum.
I haven't read much on it and can not even imagine what the rational might be. I'm stumped and walking toward the light...wait, is that a religious expression?
Chocolate? Rum Raisin?
Anyone know how much it cost for this waste-of-time resolution to go through the House?
I don't want to recruit the guy, just want to help him return from the dark side, he can be the repub version of independent Joe Lieberman
I'm right there with him! Separation of Church and State. You don't have to be religious to be moral. Some of us have the intelligence to think and understand the difference between right and wrong without the wrath of God threat hanging over us. As a nation - we have a lot of maturing to do before we can all use our brains. As a matter of fact - the Conservative brain has an enlarged amygdala - which deals with fear. Hopefully we will evolve sooner than later.
I completely agree with Mr. Amash. Politicians just cherry picking some easy political points. It is very sad they feel they need to act this way. It guess this is how it goes when you have the best politicians money can buy.
And I wonder which God is he trusting in. That to which you work or slave for is your god. You cannot slave for riches and for the Almighty God, creator of everything at the same time. He should read the Bible before trying to talk about it. State and religion should be separate, but life and our way of thinking and acting morally should not be separate. To be a Christian is a way of life, not a religion and it is base on loving God the father over all things, and our neighbors as ourselves.
@afrommi #3.1
Are you sure you trust in the right god?
The creator of everything? Ah, no.
To be christian is not a way of live. To be a moral person is a way of live, to be christian is, believing in a certain god, that makes it RELIGION.
No no we have to put In God We Trust on our buildings our else our federal workers will forget who they're working for and then they will pass immoral pieces of legislation. Ya know pieces that make it legal for teh gays to be gay together and bills that let teh rape victims not continue to be victims through forced pregnancy. The American people must know that this is a theocracy!
On a side note could anyone explain to me the rationale behind wanting to make America a theocracy when one believes the world is going to be destroyed by God anyways?
Oh and ftr my first paragraph was meant in sarcasm ;-)
I think this stretches what most would claim as their aim. The country does have strong religious roots and have historically recognized there is a God. People's faith usually affects all areas of their life, no way to compartmentalize it. Respecting the rights of all religions (and those who choose to have no faith in a higher power) should be the goal.
I think this vote and effort was stupid (as I stated in comment 1.2).
I always think George Carlin when I think God.
In that we trust.
I agree w/ this, but when you start making demands that things like "In God We Trust" be put up in all public buildings it ends up having the opposite effect (although I recognize you, RobDon, aren't advocating such a thing). Do I believe all want to implement a theocracy? No not even close to the majority. But I do think there is a large portion of the population who are unable to realize there is a difference between the morality they believe they (as individuals) should live by and the morality a country should live by. And it's that smaller group that perplexes me.
Yeah, the religious right is a very weird group in so many ways. In the particular way you're talking about, it's as if the attitude is "I'm offended, so you have to do as I say." I've done as much reading as I can on the psychology of right-wing thinking, but I'm not sure I've really come across anything that explains the belief that tightly-wound knickers gives a person absolute power over other people's lives.
People have a right to their beliefs and moral codes, and they have a right to try to convince other people voluntarily to adopt those beliefs and morals, but that's it. There are two major lines that should not be crossed. If, in private conversation, a person does not want to "convert", that's the end of the matter. No means no. In the public realm, it's ok to let your personal code guide your public actions, but insisting that your private code must be public policy is out of the question.
The National Library of Medicine has a very nice article about the why the GOP seems so disconnected from reality.
People with schizophrenic tendencies see connections where there are none. This is like when Bachmann blamed Obama for the hurricane.
This is called "magical thinking".
You will recognize this when you hear Perry, Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, and Romney speaking.
In fact, it looks like Perry forgot his medication last Saturday.
While I believe in God, I also believe that there are people that are very religious that will kill someone because the voice of God told them to do that. Son of Sam is a case in point.
The GOP is aware of this behavior, and this is the group of people that Bohner is speaking directly to when he blames Obama for lack of jobs after voting against the jobs bill. About 20% of the population has mental illness, and about 1% are disabled.
Can you say voting block?
I know you can.
Oh, Monk!!!! Your comment is soooooo exact and beautiful, I wish I had a sign of it so I could paste it on my forehead! Thank you so much!
If you put my sign on your forehead, wouldn't that make me the Antichrist?
It sounds like the Congressman has given this some thought and may be signaling to the Republican leadership that he is tired of the political games. How refreshing that a Congressman wants to do some real work in the House.
Come on people, there is serious work that needs doing. Stop futzing around.
Ooohhhhh.
It is John Brainer.
I've been saying the name wrong all this time.
My bad.
Bravo, Representative Amash. I'd like to ask Speaker john Boehner and the Tea Party in Congress how many jobs will be created by pushing "patriotic" resolutions in the house? how many people will be able to keep their homes if the House reaffirms "In god We Trust" as the national motto? These actions of partisan stunts meant to score political points while adding to the dreadful record of the do-nothing Congress. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
"In Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879's God We Trust"!
We need a new motto.
Caveat emptor is always good.
Or, If you're not rich, it's your own fault.
How about, I've got mine?
Any other ideas?
Tag your It!
=)
How funny Rachel
I am Catholic and Fourth Degree in the
Knights of Columbus and when I was moving up through the degrees. One of the
good things was told the Knights of Columbus did in the 1950's was to put on
the Dollar Bill "In God we trust"
that was brought to our attention. It is funny the Republicans are
"Taking Credit" for that since they generally do not like Catholics
or (Universal) Christians. Since my Catholic Cursillo I found much to be taught
wrong and not agree much with Catholic Church, except wish I had taken the 8
years of free College keep up the great work gorgeous. Martin B
Ditto.
Here is the voter fraud in Florida:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/02/politics/main2143882.shtml
Very funny. If it's been months with repeated requests ignored, why don't they just rescind her voting rights and throw her in jail. One loud mouth silenced. Five years in jail might turn her around!
Strange, I thought the Republican motto for our country is "In Wall Street We Trust," with Republican asking themselves every minute of every day "WWWSD?" (What Would Wall Street Do?). I know the difference. Republicans, by and large, just pay lip service to Jesus, while at the same time they pay homage to Wall Street 1 percenters, corporations and individuals alike, because that is where all the money is, where Republicans expect to cash-in after proving their fealty to the fat cats running Wall Street, those who almost ran the U.S. and world economies off a cliff in 2008...and who are still trying, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Jesus? Bah, humbug, all the Republicans exclaim. Scrooge needs more tax cuts. Scrooge needs less regulations. Scrooge needs to outsource Bob Cratchit's job overseas. And to hell with Tiny Tim, they say. It's Tiny Tim's fault that he doesn't have insurance to cover his life-threatening debility. If the Spirit of Jesus showed up and addressed all these Republican Scrooges, they'd throw stones at him, try to scourge him, and gather together the wood and nails to crucify him...again. So, it is obvious that when certain Republicans in the House pass an "In God We Trust" resolution, the "God" they are supposedly honoring is not the God that Jesus Christ came into this world to teach everyone about. The Republicans' "God" is Wall Street, is money, is fat cat conservative financiers...the very ones that Jesus threw out of the temple.
It should be noted that they put this slogan on our money in the 1950's which makes one wonder.. do they really worship god or money or do they often confuse the two?
As Dobgert would say, that's not really an "or" question.
The fifties must have been a very scary time if the populace was so intent on putting god on everything. It snuck into the pledge of allegiance, too! The pledge of allegiance was a perfectly good, non-denominational pledge until then. It was okay to be just an American up until then. Moving forward, only the religious people "under god" (read: christian god) were the real Americans. At that moment, every other belief in America got left out of the mix.
That's the mentality that gives us Christine O'Donnell, who famously said: "It's freedom of religion, not freedom from religion..." And she means that you should pick hers.
Buh-skewsme?
As an American, I feel it's my choice NOT to engage in magical thinking if I find it irrelevant in my life.
I honestly don't care if people choose to engage in magical thinking, but I care a lot about whether or not they then try to legislate the behavior of others based on their own magical thinking.
You wanna worship grampainthesky, knock yourself out, but don't try to impose it on the rest of us!
How about we take the phrase 'in god we trust' OFF of our money? How about if our folding money were of different sizes so blind people could handle their money by themselves? Even Egypt has bills of different sizes so blind Egyptians can handle their own money. That would be a change worth making! No more god, and money that isn't discriminatory! That would be kind of awesome!
And there's my idealism again...
:D
I've dropped a "nasty note" to my representative. He's a democrat that has always voted in ways I approved of but not this time. I was appalled!
My ancestors came over on the Mayflower and I was raised, getting it pounded in my head, that the most important principle in our country was the separation of church and state. Were that principle to be thrown away American would begin a downward spiral that would put all of our beliefs in jeopardy.
And so today, once again, our government has ignored what needs doing and has, instead, upheld a slogan that has no place in government. I also asked my congressman if he was going to go to the schools in the Asian communities in his district and look the Asian children in the eye and say that their beliefs were less important then his.
I do not expect a response.
They must not trust him too much because the bible say's to do these things in your closet without recognition. It's too bad they don't know how to live by the selfless example Christ set for them. ...ya, they might think they "trust in God" but it's a shame he can't trust in them!
This bill created how many jobs?
Whew, I am glad that passed now. That will create millions of high paying jobs, end the wars, solve the debt, and make the economy grow at staggering rates. Thank you so much for that Beohner and Cantor.
By the way, the Dems who voted for this bill are douche bags just as much. THIS is actually a bigger determinant as to who I would trust. I am thinking there are only 9 I might be able to trust now.
This was pretty much the same thought I had.
Holy crap! This is coming from a Tea Party politician? I think I might faint.
You mean,
instead of passing Jobs legislation,
they voted to reaffirm a slogan,
That directly defies the Constitution!
"respecting an establishment of religion."
This they had time for?!?!?! This!!! A legislative poke in the eye to all the atheists!
THIS!!!
I don't know what we call it, when you've gone so far outside the overton window, outside what normal republicans would have done, outside what the conservative republicans would have done, outside what far right republicans would have done.
Now we have reached the antics that only a parody of republicans would do, These are the republicans that you've seen on Simpsons, these are the republicans that you'd see in a political cartoon, These are the type of republicans that are too crazy to be made fun of.
It's the Poe's Law Republicans. The G.O. P.oes
... ya, they might "trust in God" but it's a shame he can't trust in them! God, despises liars so that eliminates almost every government official in the country. He also said to do your works in secret, without recognition and then there is the whole "live as I say and not as I do" mentality they have. If they are going to profess to be Christian, they need to look at the life he lived. I wonder if they're familiar with the words: "Depart from me. I never knew you!"
The real truth of the matter is: Religious extremism kills, it doesn't matter what religion, it has no place in Government! Religion has been responsible for more murder, more oppression, more suffering, more war and more hate than anything in the history of mankind. Enough is enough, I have no qualms with God, just his overzealous followers!
What a complete waste of time! Why are we paying congress at all, let alone allowing them to vote themselves pay raises and vacations??
This is how they choose to spend our time and money? Yes, we affirm there is no separation of church and state. What a load.
I think the taxpayers need to renegotiate the compensation agreements with our employees in congress, reductions in salary, health care benefits, retirement benefits, free postage, staff salaries, removing capitol hill amenities are all on the table. Our employees are allowed to take no other actions on our behalf until such time as this labor dispute is settled. We are therefore locking all elected members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate out of their workplaces until agreement is reached.
And Congress should have no right to negotiate with us. No union rights for them since they're so eager to take them from the rest of us!
You've got the right idea, PaPlanner! A management lock-out!!
I was wondering the same thing....anyone actually keeping track of the cost of these time wasting actions in the house?
why should the repubs care what it costs ???? It goes on Obama's debt stats, not theirs
I was wondering the same thing....anyone actually keeping track of the cost
of these time wasting actions in the house?
Next week, as I understand it, the GOP controlled congress is voting on their choice for a national Kool Aid flavor, and if I'm not mistaken, it's sour grape...black cherry, it lost in a red necked, white sheeted, and blue blooded landslide.
GO GOP!!!...I mean gee whiz, after all, I'm not homeless..well, not quite yet, but it's almost winter and your gettin' close.
Hey, don't put no quit in your quit, I know ya'll can do it, is what I'm sayin'!
Even plain ol' "red" flavor is appropriate for your analogy!
:D
What a waste of time that should be spent on real issues.
And then which God would that be?
Last I heard this nation of ours is a melting pot of diverse races, faiths & creed & thousands who do not believe in any deity.