America needs to return to basic values
Published:Saturday | June 25, 2011 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
'In God We Trust' was adopted as the official motto of the United States in 1956. It is also the motto of the US state of Florida, says Wikipedia. Derived from the Bible, the phrase has appeared on US coins since 1864 and on paper currency since 1957.
While it was clearly defined which God America's founding fathers invoked then, today's secular, modernistic leader's public reference of God has become a mere meaningless platitude.
Wednesday evening, our beloved President Obama addressed the American people and the world on troop drawdown from Afghanistan which, as always by US presidents, ended with the line 'May God Bless America'. Next evening, the president addressed a campaign fund-raiser organised for him by a group that, by its lifestyle, clearly practised that which is condemned vehemently by the same God that should bless America.
Is not this cross-purpose? Did the president invoke God's blessings at the fund-raising dinner? The God that blessed America, making it a once great nation, has established laws and guidelines wherewith He promises blessings or curses based on the obedience of individuals and nations.
Setting sun
We watch the American courts systematically overturn or remove from public domain the God of their founding fathers in their interpretation or, as some believe, misinterpretation of the US constitution. Simultaneously, we are seeing the once great nation, that bright shining superpower, setting as the evening sun.
We hope the resounding call to 'take back America' includes a return to basic values.
Hitherto, if this God is an imagination, why waste words of platitude and invocation when all our achievements are by our own strength? Yet, if the Creator God is real and mankind is in subjection to His judgement, perhaps the nation should be administered in line with the blueprint set out in His Word, the Bible.
It is improbable that America can return to its founding principles, can return to a time when 'In God We Trust' was a heartfelt supplication, a time when the world looks to her for strong leadership and protection, a time when that country was exceedingly strong and God blessed America.
CLAUDE WILSON