Banning the Mention of God in Public Life
In November 2012, a six-year-old girl was told by her North Carolina school that, during a Veteran's Day program, she could not say the word God in reading a poem that honored her two grandfathers. "He prayed to God for peace, he prayed to God for strength," the poem stated (Todd Starnes, God Less America, 2014, pp. 128-129).
School officials in southern Florida "banned a fifth grader from reading the Bible during 'free reading' time" (Breitbart.com, "FL Teacher Banned Bible From 'Free Reading' Time in Classroom," May 5, 2014).
Meanwhile, officials at other schools are on the alert to make sure that Gideons International does not succeed in—horror of horrors!—passing out free Bibles to students at school.
An e-mail memo from the assistant principal of a New Jersey middle school stated: "It has been brought to the administration's attention that Gideons may be near our campus to distribute literature to our students . . . Please make sure they DO NOT step foot onto our campus at anytime. There will be added police and security presence at dismissal" (quoted by Starnes, p. 116, emphasis added). Apparently some school administrators think distributing Bibles is the big danger in America's public schools today—to the point that police must be called in to prevent it!
In 2012, national Democratic Party leaders removed references to God from their party's platform at their national convention. But this wasn't popular with everyone, and as it was shown on primetime TV nationwide, a move was made to put God back in—at which point many on the convention floor shockingly booed. Yes, booed God—or at least the prospect of God having anything to do with decisions in governing the nation! How far this country has fallen from the days of the Founding Fathers.
Nationally syndicated radio host Steve Deace comments: "This 'New Left' is not mere liberals. They are flat-out Leftists . . . They are Social Reconstructionists, whose goal is to empower government to replace our Judeo-Christian ideals of liberty and morality with what amounts to Cultural Marxism . . . That's why their ultimate goal is silencing the church . . . For the church says that God alone is God, and government is not.
"Not to mention with God out of the way, so are your God-given rights, which makes you a de facto ward of the state and not a free person. As [noted author G.K.] Chesterton once said [paraphrased], 'Whenever the government removes the god, the government then becomes the god'" ("The Left Officially Declares War on God," Townhall.com, July 13, 2014).