BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG
We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
More Jewish Holocaust "Never Again" hypocrisy. The only difference in Israel's actions in the West Bank and Gaza and nazi Germany's actions in Poland is Israel has not fired up any ovens. Israelites consider Palestinians sub-human the same as nazi Germans considered Poles. Israelites create Palestinian ghettos in the West Bank and Gaza the same as nazi Germans created Jewish ghettos in Poland. Illegal Israelite settlers are seizing Palestinian land in the West Bank and are finalizing plans for the illegal seizure of most of Gaza employing the same justifications of lebensraum and security nazi Germans used in Poland. And Israelites are apostates of Judaism, are perverting the Jewish religion just as nazi Germans were apostates of Christianity and perverted the Christian religion. Keep e mailing your representative, your senators and the White House demanding weapons and ammunition shipments to Israel are stopped until they stop committing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the West Bank and Gaza. Boycott all Israeli goods and businesses and demand disinvestment by all investing in and doing business with Israel. To do nothing against genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity makes one a participant in them.
Palestine warned of “grave repercussions” on Wednesday from an Israeli decision to transfer the authority over the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron to a settler council, Anadolu reports.
According to Israeli media, Tel Aviv had abolished the authority of the Palestinian-run Hebron Municipality over the mosque, and reassigned it to the religious council of the Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron in the southern West Bank.
The media report did not specify the scope of powers transferred, but said the move aims to facilitate “structural changes” at the site, calling it “great news for the settlement.”
“This decision represents a flagrant violation of international law and relevant UN resolutions,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It warned of grave repercussions from the move and called for the urgent intervention of UNESCO and the international community to halt the implementation of the Israeli decision.
The Israeli move marks the first major shift in the status of the mosque since the 1994 recommendations of the Shamgar Commission, which divided access, allocating 63% of the site to Jewish worshippers and 37% to Muslims.
That division followed the 1994 massacre by extremist settler Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Palestinian worshippers during dawn prayers.
The mosque is located in Hebron’s Old City in an area under full Israeli control where roughly 400 illegal settlers live under the protection of around 1,500 Israeli soldiers.
Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
MOST of the world recognizes Israel is guilty of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity similar to those committed by hitler's third reich, fortunately they still have no built the ovens. Most of the world recognizes the hypocrisy of the jewish mantra "Never Again" because they only apply it to Israeli jews and the jewish diaspora. The palestinian attack on Israel by hamas on 7 Oktober 2023 was an orgy of rape, brutal carnage, murder, and kidnapping that was also similar to the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by hitler's third reich. The crimes committed by palestinians on 7 Oktober do not justify the crimes committed by Israeli jews in Gaza as well as the intensification of Israeli jews war crimes and crimes against humanity on Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Nor are the 7 Oktober attacks justification for intensified discrimination, economic and physical attacks against the Armenian, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox Christian communities in Jerusalem, communities that are over 1000 years old. Americans need to e mail our representatives, senators, and the president and tell them to stop the flow of weapons to Israel until they stop their war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza as well as in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This from Sojourners.....
JERUSALEM’S OLD CITY has often been a focal point of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but within its walls lies a lesser-known story of occupation and resilience. The Armenian Quarter, a Christian enclave that has endured for centuries, now finds itself under threat.
Residents of the Armenian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem protest in 2023 a land deal that threatens to displace them from a site Armenian Christians have lived on since the 5th century. / Maya Alleruzzo / AP Photo
In the context of occupied East Jerusalem, where Palestinians continually face displacement and erasure of their cultural and physical presence, the Armenian community’s struggle reflects a larger pattern. Though they make up a small portion of the city’s population, Armenians have called Jerusalem home for more than 1,700 years, surviving waves of conflict and colonial powers.
As a critical component of a shared Jerusalem between Jews, Christians, and Muslims, the Armenian Quarter has been a haven for this Christian community since a group of Armenian monks and priests established St. James monastery there in 420 C.E.
The enclave is now fighting to preserve its heritage amid mounting pressures. In April 2023, the community was shaken by plans from an Israeli-Australian developer, Xana Capital, to construct a luxury hotel on land purportedly owned by the Armenian Patriarchate. This development mirrors the land confiscation and settlement expansion that Palestinians know all too well.
Like the rest of the Christian population in the Old City, including the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Ethiopian Orthodox, the Armenian community is navigating increased challenges, from economic strain to political pressures and demands to shift the historic status quo. These communities, increasingly pressured by Israeli authorities and settlers, face a myriad of problems, including property disputes, confiscation of church lands, new and prejudicial tax demands, and occasional acts of vandalism against religious sites. All Christian groups are grappling to maintain their historical presence in the face of growing threats in this contested city.
‘The last battle for Jerusalem’
IN NOVEMBER 2023, a large group of Israeli settlers entered the Armenian Quarter and threatened to take control via violent means. The initial provocation began with the signing of what many consider an illegitimate deal that would lease around 25 percent of the Armenian Quarter to an Israeli company for 98 years. The company plans to build a hotel on the land, which is situated strategically between several pilgrimage sites. Many Armenians see this as another step in the efforts of Israeli far-right proponents to strengthen their hold over disputed East Jerusalem.
Hagop Djernazian and Setrag Balian are co-founders of the Save the ArQ movement, whose goal is to preserve and defend the Armenian Quarter (or “ArQ”) of Jerusalem. They have been among the most ardent community activists responding to the threats of settlers attempting to confiscate the land.
“We established a movement,” Djernazian told Sojourners, “following an illegal land deal, which was signed by the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem with an Israeli company, Xana Capital ... it turns out that the company has alleged ties with settler organizations.” Djernazian described attacks with bulldozers and by armed settlers and said, “The existential threat we as a community are facing is a huge threat not only for the Armenian community and church and the Christians in Jerusalem but also for the mosaic of Jerusalem that we believe in.”
Armenians have taken the issue to Israeli courts, which have not yet ruled. Peaceful protests of the deal have led to violent crackdowns by the Israeli military in which many activists have been injured and arrested. Representatives of Xana Capital recently came to the Armenian Quarter with Israeli settlers armed with assault rifles and German shepherds. When a scuffle ensued, Israeli police only arrested the unarmed Armenians while allowing instigating Israeli settlers to leave the area. The Armenians were later released without charge, after hours of detention. Armenians have since set up an encampment in the area to guard against attempts by settlers to squat on the land and take it over by using strategies of confiscation and displacement employed in other parts of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Djernazian and Balian speak not only about protecting the Armenian Quarter, but also about a shared Jerusalem. “We consider the battle and the struggle for the Armenian Quarter the last battle for the Jerusalem that we all love, the Jerusalem that is holy to the three monotheistic religions,” Balian said. “Our main goal is to ... preserve the cultural mosaic, the multiethnic, multicultural, and multifaith character of this unique and holy city.”
THE STRUGGLES FOR the protection of Armenians in the Old City are not isolated incidents. Extremist Israelis are known for their targeted hate crimes against indigenous Christians. These include physical assaults as well as spitting attacks, emboldened by the rise of the far-right establishment in Israel. Armenian priests and others have long complained about being physically and verbally assaulted by settlers and the lack of meaningful action taken by the police and government to stop these attacks.
For Armenians facing displacement in Jerusalem, the current threat is reminiscent of their experience historically, having survived ethnic cleansing and attempts at genocide — an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries — ignored until recently by much of the world. In 2010, the U.S. Congress finally acknowledged the Armenian genocide despite pressure from Turkey, supported by President Barack Obama, not to pursue the matter. In 2021, President Joe Biden declared April 24 Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. To this day, Turkey continues to deny the genocide of the Armenian people.
The decades-long displacement of Armenians from Turkey and other parts of Asia resonates with the experience of Palestinians, several hundred thousand of whom remain residents of Jerusalem without any permanent nationhood status. Palestinians also have a history of ethnic cleansing and displacement stretching back to the Nakba (“great catastrophe”) of 1948, which resulted in roughly three-quarters of a million Palestinian refugees.
Armenian Christians in the Old City are not the only members of the walled city facing the threat of displacement as far-right settler presence increases — the Muslim and Christian quarters face similar challenges. After Israel took control of Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967 in the Six-Day War, Armenians and Palestinians in East Jerusalem were given a special “Jerusalem ID” instead of Israeli citizenship; some Armenians also retained Jordanian citizenship. Consequently, the Armenian community is treated similarly to Palestinians by Israeli authorities, facing delays in obtaining permits and difficulties at checkpoints and airports. Without Israeli citizenship, Armenians and Palestinians often describe themselves as people without a country, lacking the protections of a state to address their civil and human rights concerns.
Today, Armenians face an existential crisis — both in Jerusalem and in their historic homeland. The additional displacement of 120,000 Armenians from the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region by Azerbaijan in September 2023 only added to their collective trauma. Armenian American attorney Lenna Hovanessian described the recent forced displacement as hauntingly reminiscent of the genocide a century earlier. “I feel like parts of me are being erased,” Hovanessian said. “I am becoming invisible.”
The Israel-Azerbaijan connection
ARMENIA, THE FIRST country in the world to adopt Christianity as its state religion, in 301 C.E., is a landlocked nation bordered by Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Iran. The Armenian homeland, however, extends much further than the current state borders and encompasses vast swathes of Eastern Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Most of the approximately 11 million Armenians worldwide trace their heritage from these lands. Due to the loss of land from foreign conquest, subjugation, massacres, and eventually genocide, these ancient Christian people live mostly as a diaspora around the world.
The ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has much in common with that in Jerusalem. Both locations are home to some of the world’s most sacred Christian heritage sites. Ancient churches have been systematically destroyed in the last 30 years of war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. However, the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region — which had a majority Armenian population but is controlled by Azerbaijan — still contains a wealth of ancient monasteries, stone crosses (called khachkars), and other sacred places. The renewed outbreak of war here is one of the great concerns within the threat of a broader Middle East escalation and further complicates the already rife geopolitics of the Middle East and neighboring regions.
When Armenia won the first Nagorno-Karabakh war in the early 1990s, the territory (known as Artsakh by Armenians) declared independence but was unrecognized internationally. Massacres and interethnic conflict occurred as a part of the violence on all sides, including numerous pogroms against the Armenian people perpetrated by Azerbaijan, which was supported by both Turkey and Israel. This played into another Israeli-Armenian dynamic: the close cultural and military ties between Israel and Azerbaijan.
In 2020, Azerbaijan launched a military campaign aimed at reclaiming all the land it had lost in the 1990s war. Using Israeli drones, ammunition, and training, the much larger and better-equipped Azerbaijani army conquered large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh before a ceasefire was signed. The ceasefire did little to stop escalations in violence. Emboldened by its victory and with its military stocks replenished by Israel, Azerbaijan launched a 10-month blockade on the remaining Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, soon resulting in deaths by starvation. In September 2023, Azerbaijan forces once again attacked. The local Armenian forces surrendered, and a mass exodus ensued.
These military campaigns were widely celebrated in Israel. Videos emerged of Israelis ripping down Armenian flags in Jerusalem and attacking Armenian property, such as restaurants in the Armenian Quarter. Israel continues to deepen its military and intelligence relationship with Azerbaijan.
THESE DAYS, CHRISTIAN residents of Jerusalem, including those in the Armenian Quarter, watch as Israel continues its onslaught in Gaza that, after more than 12 months, has caused the death of more than 41,000 Palestinians, including dozens of the small Christian population. The most immediate threat for Armenians in the Old City may be the confiscation of their historic land, but it transpires within the context of increased hostilities between Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.
As Israel’s war on Gaza continues and regional violence escalates, the United States has continued to arm Israel and has increased its military presence in the Middle East in hopes of deterring an expanded war. Azerbaijan is backed by Turkey and Russia, which have opposed the war on Gaza. In July, President Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey said he was considering “entering Israel” in support of Gaza. “We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine,” Erdogan said. “Just like we entered [Nagorno-]Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them.”
While Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, in addition to pro-Iranian militias throughout the Middle East, may be on one side of Israel’s war against Gaza, it is important to note the other actors waiting in the wings. As of early August, Russia and Iran had begun talks about more significant political allegiances moving forward.
As a broader regional war breaks out, it is possible that Azerbaijan would use this as a distraction to attack Armenia once again. Armenia, a tiny democratic country with profound Christian historical importance, remains significantly vulnerable, as do the small Armenian Christian communities in both Nagorno-Karabakh and the Old City of Jerusalem.
The co-founders of the movement to save the Armenian Quarter are still hopeful. “We pray for peace, stability, justice for our region, and peace for the Holy Land and Jerusalem,” Djernazian said. Balian added a plea: “Let us all come together and pray for the peace of not only Jerusalem as a whole, but specifically for Christian Jerusalem, which is more and more under threat, and which is facing today some of their biggest existential threats.”
هناك الكثير من اليهود والفلسطينيين المليء بالكراهية كل ما يمكن القيام به هو همية هؤلاء النساء ومؤيديهم. ولكن أي شخص من الإيمان يعلم أن نعمة الله هي على أولئك الذين يسعون لتحقيق السلام العادل والدائم. ليس فقط هو الله الى جانبهم، والجنس هو أيضا. سأكون دائما أعجب من قبل الآلاف من السيدات من ليبيريا الذي جلب الحرب الأهلية 14 عاما إلى نهايته ليس فقط عن طريق حجب الجنس من أزواجهن ولكن أيضا من خلال التهديد تعريض أنفسهم، عارية، على العالم وذلك بجلب العار لأزواجهن العائلات، وحتى تجبر الرجال ليبيريا لتوقيع أخيرا لاتفاق سلام واستعادة حكومة ديمقراطية في البلاد. إذا كنت لا تعرف القصة أقترح عليك مشاهدة الفيلم "صلوا من الشيطان الرجوع إلى الجحيم" ، ونصلي من أجل المرأة في الأجور السلام في إسرائيل والضفة الغربية وقطاع غزة. من عندالديمقراطية الآن! وتايمز أوف إسرائيل .....
فيفيان فضية : "نحن تنظيم النساء من جميع أنحاء البلاد، من كل جانب من الطيف السياسي، الذين يقولون:" كفى! Maspik [العبرية لما يكفي] '- باللغة العربية، انها "makkafi' - 'كفى. نحن لم نعد على استعداد للقيام بذلك ". يجب علينا التوصل إلى اتفاق سياسي. يجب أن نغير النموذج الذي كنا قد تعلمناه لمدة سبعة عقود حتى الآن، حيث أننا لقد قيل أن الحرب الوحيدة سيجلب السلام. ونحن لا نعتقد ذلك بعد الآن.لقد ثبت أن هذا ليس صحيحا ".
نساء من "المرأة في الأجور السلام" الحركة واتخاذ الفلسطينيين في مسيرة بالقرب من نهر الأردن، في الضفة الغربية يوم 8 أكتوبر، 2017. (Flash90)
نشطاء إسرائيليون وفلسطينيون ان تنتهي مسيرة لمدة أسبوعين من يوم الأحد حتى أجزاء من إسرائيل والضفة الغربية مع مسيرة القدس للمطالبة التوصل الى اتفاق سلام.
أجر النساء نظمت حركة السلام المسيرة التي بدأت يوم 24 سبتمبر، وتشمل المشاركين الذين تضرروا أنفسهم بسبب العنف في الصراع الإسرائيلي الفلسطيني.
انضم عدة آلاف من النشطاء مسيرة أكثر من أسبوعين.
نساء من "المرأة في الأجور السلام" الحركة واتخاذ الفلسطينيين في مسيرة بالقرب من نهر الأردن، في الضفة الغربية يوم 8 أكتوبر، 2017. (Flash90)
"يجب أن نأتي معا لتكون قادرة على الوصول إلى السلام الذي نريده جميعا،" ميشال فرومان، الذي تعرض للطعن على يد فلسطيني في يناير 2016 أثناء الحمل بطفلها الخامس، لوكالة فرانس برس الاسبوع الماضي قائلة إنها تريد أن "يؤمنون بالسلام ".
"كامرأة الدينية، وأنا أقول إن لا يؤمن بالسلام هو لا يؤمنون بالله".
وقال هدى Abuarquob، أحد المنظمين وفلسطيني من مدينة الخليل في الضفة الغربية: "هذه المسيرة ليست مجرد احتجاج آخر، ولكن طريقة للقول اننا نريد السلام، ومعا يمكننا الحصول عليه."
A 22 مترا (70 قدما) اللباس، وصفت بأنها الأكبر في العالم، تم عرضها لأول مرة بالقرب من البحر الميت في شرف النساء أثناء سيرهم الماضي.
، تم إنشاء الثوب الذي لديه محيط 60 مترا (200 قدم) في عام 2007 من قبل الفنان الإسرائيلي والناشط أدي يكوتيلي لتسليط الضوء على محنة النساء "المقيدة" التي ترفض لهم القانون اليهودي الطلاق أزواجهن. ولم يثبت قط علنا من قبل.
أكبر ثوب في العالم، وارتفاع 22 مترا و 60 مترا محيط، التي أنشأتها أدي يكوتيلي الإسرائيلي في عام 2007. (المجاملة)
وتأتي هذه المسيرة في الوقت الذي يرى العديد من المحللين أمل في التوصل الى اتفاق سلام اسرائيلي فلسطيني.
رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية محمود عباس هو 82 والتي لا تحظى بشعبية، في حين أن رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي بنجامين نيتانياو يؤدي ما ينظر إليها على أنها الحكومة الأكثر يمينية في تاريخ بلاده.
في عام 2015، والمرأة في الأجور أعضاء السلام صام في التبديلات أكثر من 50 أيام، وطول الحرب 2014 بين اسرائيل وحركة حماس الإرهابية في قطاع غزة.
وصوله الاحد في القدس يتزامن مع عطلة يهودية لمدة أسبوع من عيد العرش، الذي يحيي رحلة اليهودية عبر سيناء بعد خروجهم من مصر.
في وقت سابق الاحد، تجمع الآلاف من اليهود في حائط المبكى في القدس على نعمة الكهنوتية التي عقدت خلال عطلة كل عام.
"صلوا من الشيطان الرجوع إلى الجحيم" ، إسرائيل ، اليهود ، المسلمين ، الدولة الفلسطينية ، سلام ، المرأة الأجور السلام
THERE are too many Jews and Palestinians so full of hate all they can do is mock these women and their supporters. But any person of faith knows that God's blessing is on those who seek just and lasting peace. Not only is God on their side, sex is too. I will always be impressed by the thousands of ladies of Liberia who brought a 14 year civil war to an end by not only withholding sex from their husbands but also by threatening to expose themselves, naked, to the world and so bringing shame to their husbands families, and so forcing the men of Liberia to finally sign a peace agreement and restore a democratic government to the country. If you do not know the story I suggest you watch the movie 'Pray The Devil Back To Hell', and pray for Women Wage Peace in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. From Democracy Now! and the Times of Israel.....
Vivian Silver: “We are organizing women from all over the country, from every side of the political spectrum, who are saying, 'Enough! Maspik [Hebrew for enough]'—in Arabic, it’s ’makkafi’—’Enough. We’re no longer willing to do this.’ We must reach a political agreement. We must change the paradigm that we have been taught for seven decades now, where we’ve been told that only war will bring peace. We don’t believe that anymore. It’s been proven that it’s not true.”
Women from the 'Women Wage Peace' movement and Palestinians take part in a march near the Jordan River, in the West Bank on October 8, 2017. (Flash90)
Israeli and Palestinian activists were ending a two-week march Sunday through parts of Israel and the West Bank with a Jerusalem rally to demand a peace deal.
The Women Wage Peace movement organized the march, which began on September 24 and includes participants who have themselves been affected by violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Several thousand activists joined the march over the two weeks.
Women from the ‘Women Wage Peace’ movement and Palestinians take part in a march near the Jordan River, in the West Bank on October 8, 2017. (Flash90)
“We must come together to be able to reach the peace that we all want,” Michal Froman, who was stabbed by a Palestinian in January 2016 while pregnant with her fifth child, told AFP last week, saying she wants to “believe in peace.”
“As a religious woman, I say that to not believe in peace is to not believe in God.”
Huda Abuarquob, one of the organizers and a Palestinian from Hebron in the West Bank, said: “This march is not just another protest, but a way of saying that we want peace, and together we can obtain it.”
A 22-meter-high (70 feet) dress, billed as the world’s largest, was displayed for the first time near the Dead Sea in honor of the women as they walked past.
The dress, which has a circumference of 60 meters (200 feet), was created in 2007 by Israeli artist and activist Adi Yekutieli to highlight the plight of “chained” women whose husbands refuse them a Jewish bill of divorce. It has never been shown publicly before.
The world’s largest dress, 22 meters high and 60 meters circumference, created by Israeli Adi Yekutieli in 2007. (Courtesy)
The march comes at a time when many analysts see little hope for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is 82 and unpopular, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads what is seen as the most right-wing government in his country’s history.
In 2015, Women Wage Peace members fasted in relays over 50 days, the length of the 2014 war between Israel and the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.
Sunday’s arrival in Jerusalem coincides with the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which commemorates the Jewish journey through the Sinai after their exodus from Egypt.
Earlier Sunday, thousands of Jews gathered at Jerusalem’s Western Wall for a priestly blessing held during the holiday each year.
THERE are so many who sadly believe that by declaring we are a Christian nation, founded on Christian principles, makes it so. We could be a Christian nation if the Christian community, the largest community of faith in the U.S., actually practiced what they preach. That would mean putting into practice the teachings of Jesus Christ all the time. Being human, and believing in a loving, forgiving God who knows that, the vast majority of Christians in America try to do that every day, and being human, fall short of that goal. God's grace allows us to start fresh the next day, and we again try our best. But Christianity in America is not helped by those who feel it is OK to manipulate history, to lie, to deceive, and to misinform in the name of Christianity. The God Christians believe in doesn't want or need that kind of "help". The people who use these tactics to prove their claims that we are a Christian nation are no different than the Islamic fundamentalist who declare Saudi Arabia and Iran Muslim nations or the Orthodox Jews who declare Israel a Jewish (religious) nation. All are guilty of perverting the true teachings of their faiths. Thankfully our Founding Fathers, knowing first hand the hypocrisy of government established religion, prohibited it in our Constitution. That is something all Americans can thank their individual God or gods, or the memory of the Founding Fathers, for. And it is something we must all be committed to defend. There is a lot more about Christianity and religion and the Founding Fathers at The Great Debate of Our Season & ORIGINAL INTENT, GOD AND COUNTRY from MOTHER JONES DEZ2005 updated 21APR12
http://bucknacktssordidtawdryblog.blogspot.com/p/original-intent-god-and-country-from.html From Daily Kos....
This past week, conservatives found yet another reason to condemn
President Barack Obama as "un-American." The Muslim Kenyan Socialist
showed his true colors, they said, by omitting the words "under God"
from a video reading of the Gettysburg Address.
Of course, the line of attack is silly. President Obama was reading
from an original draft of the speech penned by Lincoln himself. Of the
five existing contemporary written versions of the speech, three contain
the phrase "under God." All three of those drafts were prepared after
Nov. 19, 1863, the day Lincoln delivered the speech.
Newspaper transcriptions of the day - which, because of the vaguries
of telegraph service, often varied in wording - do all seem to agree
that Lincoln added the words "under God," extemporaneously it seems,
when he gave the speech, which is why the phrase appears in subsequent
drafts, but not in copies written beforehand.
Should Ken Burns, who prepared the video, have considered the
possibility of controversy when he selected that particular passage to
feature President Obama, given the skepticism on the far right of the
president's religious beliefs? Perhaps. Then again, it's my opinion that
Barack Obama could conclude every sentence of every speech with a
reference to the Christian God, and it still wouldn't satisfy the
religious right. Their motivation is less about religion than it is
about portraying President Obama as "the other," and therefore hostile
to the nation he leads.
But the controversy did get me thinking - what, exactly, is God's
relationship to the United States, and our relationship to God? I knew
in rough form how the church-state relationship has evolved in this
country, but I didn't know some of the details. And I'm fascinated by
what I've learned. I'll share my newfound (and prior) knowledge below
the sacred symbol of the Orange Sect of the Church of the Flying
Spaghetti Monster.
One thing I knew about the founding fathers is that many of them were
deists, but I confess I had only a vague notion of what that meant.
I've since learned that deism grew out of The Age of Enlightenment, and
that it's adherents, while they accepted the existence of a deity, were
highly skeptical of organized religion, miracles and the notion that a
god intervened directly in the lives of individuals.
The deist philosophy permeates both The Declaration of Indepence (in
its brief references to God) and the Constitution (in its lack of same).
Consider the Declaration (emphasis added):
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for
one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them
with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate
and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that
they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...
It's hard to imagine a modern-day evangelical Christian putting "the
Laws of Nature" ahead of God, or, for that matter, referring to God as
"Nature's God." And in the second paragraph, the authors of the
Declaration abandoned references to God altogether, preferring instead
to speak of a "Creator." Those phrases are directly out of the deist
playbook.
The Constitution, meanwhile, purposefully omits any mention of God
whatsoever. Organized religion, however, is mentioned - prominently - in
the Bill of Rights ... at the very top of the Bill of Rights, in fact.
We all know the words:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...
It's no accident that the so-called "Establishment Clause" tops the
list. Ironically, it was the concerns of Protestants, primarily
Baptists, which led to its inclusion. Throughout the Colonial Period,
the Church of England was the official church of Virginia, and members
of other religions, especially Jews and Protestants, were frequently the
targets of religious persecution.
To address the concerns of members of those religious groups, Thomas
Jefferson - a member of the Virginia General Assembly - introduced the
Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, which would dis-establish the
Church of England, in the assembly in 1779. It was finally passed in
1786, with help from James Madison. To further quell the concerns of
members of minority religions - and to gain their support over
anti-federalists competing with them for seats at the ratifying
convention - Madison and fellow federalist James Gordon, Jr. promised to
propose language prohibiting the establishment of an official federal
religion as an amendment to the Constitution. And so the Establishment
Clause came to pass.
Modern-day Fundamentalist Christian revisionists like David Barton
now argue that the Establishment Clause was not intended to separate
religion and government completely. To back up their claim, they point
out that the phrase "separation of church and state" does not appear in
the Constitution, and wasn't mentioned until a Supreme Court ruling in
1878 (some argue it didn't appear until rulings in the late 20th
Century).
That's not true. The phrase was first coined by Thomas Jefferson in
his letter to the Danbury (Conneciticut) Baptist association on Jan. 1,
1802 (emphasis added):
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies
solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for
his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government
reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign
reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that
their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
Madison also used the phrase on at least one occasion. It seems clear
from their own writings what the framers of the First Amendment intended
in regards to the entanglement of religion and politics.
The only other mention of organized religion in the Constitution
comes in Article VI, paragraph 3, and further amplifies where the
founders stood on the subject (emphasis added):
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the
Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and
judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States,
shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.
The United States' official position as a secular nation was further
affirmed by another founding father, John Adams, during his presidency.
Privateers in the service of the Barbary nations - Algiers, Morocco,
Tripoli and Tunis - were taking American ships in the Meditteranean and
holding their crews for ransom or selling them into slavery. At one
point, it was feared (wrongly) that Benjamin Franklin had been captured
by the Barbary pirates.
The fledgling United States didn't have a strong enough navy to
project sufficient power into the Med to stop the privateers, so the
federal government negotiated treaties with each of the four nations,
promising annual payments in exchange for safe passage for American
ships. Article 11 of the treaty with the Pasha of Tripoli contained
these words:
As the Government of the United States of America is not, in
any sense, founded on the Christian religion — as it has in itself no
character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of
Mussulmen [Muslims] — and as the said States never entered into any war
or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Mohammedan] nation, it is
declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions
shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the
two countries.
The Treaty of Tripoli was unanimously ratified by the Senate on June 7, 1797, and signed by Adams.
By the early 1800s, deism was beginning to fade. The next appearance
of God in our national life came during the War of 1812, when an
attorney and amateur poet named Francis Scott Key witnessed the
bombardment of Fort McHenry. He was inspired to put pen to paper and
write a poem, the first stanza of which is well-known by anyone who has
ever attended a sporting event, or watched one on TV:
O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Those words were, of course, later put to music and adopted as our
national anthem. But the poem actually went on for three more stanzas,
the last of which reads:
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Wow - who took God out of the national anthem? Oh, wait ...
Key not withstanding, it would be 50 years before a modified version
of the phrase "In God is our trust" came to the fore in our national
life. The United States Congress, eager to imply that God was on the
side of the Union in the American Civil War, mandated in 1864 that some
United States coins include the phrase "In God We Trust." But the
appearance of the motto on our coinage was not uniform or continuous,
and came and went on various coins throughout the late 19th and early
20th centuries.
In 1907, another pious Congress was pushing to add the phrase to the
$20 coin. President Theodore Roosevelt (a Republican and Dutch Reformed
Christian who sometimes attended church with his wife, an Episcopalian)
vehemently opposed the move:
“My own feeling in the matter is due to my very firm
conviction that to put such a motto on coins, or to use it in any
kindred manner, not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in
effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege…”
It was not until 1938 that "In God We Trust" began appearing on all U.S. coins.
As for that other famous expression of American religiosity, "One
nation, under God," not only was it never stated as a founding
principle, it hardly made an appearance at all until the mid 20th
Century. In my admittedly limited research, I've found no mention of
such a phrase before the turn of the last century, other than Lincoln's
extemporaneous and gratuitous inclusion of it in the Gettysburg Address.
It certainly wasn't in the original Pledge of Allegiance, penned in
1892 by socialist (ah, the irony) minister Francis Bellamy. His version
read, simply:
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Revisions in 1923 (adding "to" before "the republic"), 1923 (changing
"my Flag" to "the Flag of the United States") and 1924 (adding "of
America" to "the Flag of the United States") still failed to make any
room for God, and somehow the republic survived.
In fact, it wasn't until the 1950s that God achieved His current
level of entrenchment in our national life. The Cold War was in full
swing, and many attacked the Soviet Union not for being a totalitarian
state, but for its institutionalized atheism. This was the era of
"Godless Commies," and American politicians were eager to show their
piety to differentiate themselves from their Soviet counterparts.
It was during this period that God was enshrined on our currency and
in the pledge. The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal
organization, had added "one nation, under God" to the pledge on their
own, and instigated a grassroots effort to make the change official.
Congress obliged in 1954. Then in 1956, Congress found another way to
insinuate religion into our lives by dumping the nation's unofficial
motto - E pluribus unum, or "Out of Many, One" - making "In God
We Trust" our official motto, and mandating that the new phrase be
placed on all U.S. currency (1957 marked the first time the phrase began
appearing on our paper money for the first time).
So there you have it. Our nation is 237 years old, but only for the
last 60 of those years has God been officially enshrined in our national
life. And to avoid conflict with the Establishment Clause, our nation's
god is of necessity a pretty weak and generic one.
In fact, those Christians who continue to offer up having "one
nation, under God" in our pledge and "In God We Trust" on our currency
as proof that we are a "Christian nation" don't have a leg to stand on.
In a 2004 Pledge of Allegiance case, Elk Grove Unified School District vs. Newdow,
a majority on the Supreme Court ruled that the inclusion of "one
nation, under God" was permissible under the Establishment Clause
because it has become an act of "ceremonial deism." Writing her own
opinion but concurring with the majority, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
wrote:
"Whatever the sectarian ends its authors may have had in
mind, our continued repetition of the reference to 'one Nation under
God' in an exclusively patriotic context has shaped the cultural
significance of that phrase to conform to that context. Any religious
freight the words may have been meant to carry originally has long since
been lost."
And that about wraps it up for God - or at least for the fundamentalist Christian version of Him.
UPDATE: Corrected "James Barton" to "David Barton" - thanks Fishtroller01!
Originally posted to ObamOcala on Wed Nov 20, 2013 at 06:04 AM PST.
