"God Bless America"????????

Flyingphil

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I keep seeing news footage of American politicians saying things like:

"Let us pray"
"God Bless American"
"God Bless The American People"
"May God save America"
etc etc...

I would assume they're talking about the God that Christians believe in? But doesn't the American Consitiution state that Religion and the State must be keep seperate?

Why then are they airing their religious views?

And what are they actually supposed to mean? ie, what's actually supposed to happen when America is "blessed by God" and why would it need a 'blessing' or 'saving'? Why would we need to pray when the these politicians are in charge (and supposedly doing a fantastic job).
 
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Separation of church and state means there can be no equivalent to the Church of England. It does not mean government officials need to give up their faith. I have no problem for example with a Muslim government official saying "Allah praise the US" because it is his belief not the state's.
 
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Oh boy, this is not going to end well :)

In case you don't know, religion is very big in America. The majority of people are going to church every Sunday. However, there are hundreds of different Christian churches. What is the difference - beats me!

The Constitution does say that, but a politician simply saying the words "God bless" does not infringe the Constitution. It just means that they are "good" Christians.
Do they really mean it - maybe...maybe not.
You see, the Southern States in America are very, very, VERY religious. They have a hard time accepting an African American as a president, but if he hadn't been Christian they would've gone mental!
For some extraordinary reasons, it is important that the president of America is religious. Does it make him a better politician - no. But people like him more.

So airing lines like "God Bless..." is made simply to appeal to the majority of religious Americans.
 
But Jeremiah Wright said God DAMN America!!! That just has that little extra "zing" to it, ya know?
 
The freedom to practice many different faiths in the United States was intertwined with the struggle for freedom from the British. To not have a state religion made faith property of the people themselves. This is one of the reasons while I believe that religion has lost popularity in Europe while staying popular in the United States.

I have been studying this in a class I have been taking. Much of the language you heard around the Revolution one could have heard with respect to religion and its separation from the state.
 
The freedom to practice many different faiths in the United States was intertwined with the struggle for freedom from the British. To not have a state religion made faith property of the people themselves.

But did they have to create 100 different variations of a single religion?
 
But did they have to create 100 different variations of a single religion?

That was the whole point. The governments and church officials in Europe crushed movements that would have worked in the United States.
 
I still think they took it a bit over the top. Do you honestly understand the differences between the different Christian churches?
Friends have taken me to 2 or 3 different Christian churches, and I couldn't see any major differences...apart from the name.
 
I keep seeing news footage of American politicians saying things like:

"Let us pray"
"God Bless American"
"God Bless The American People"
"May God save America"
etc etc...

I'd personally appreciate it if they'd all kindly shut the hell up, but I find that rather unlikely.

If I had to choose a single democrat I'd vote for for president, it'd be out atheist Pete Stark. Unfortunately, he's really old.
 
In case you don't know, religion is very big in America. The majority of people are going to church every Sunday.

Less than half of all Americans attend church every week, some polls showing as little as 25% actually do.

Regardless, back to the original post: there's nothing wrong with politicians saying things such as "God bless America". For a politician to say that doesn't go against the constitution (since the writers of the constitution said similar things, so obviously they didn't have in mind that such sayings violated it), nor does it have anything to do with the separation of church and state. It would be grasping at straws to say otherwise.

Politicians are free to have their own personal religious beliefs and to talk about them (this country would suck if that were not the case, because religious freedom is one of our main rights). The problem comes when politicians make laws that govern religious practices or laws are based on religious beliefs (religion should not be enforced, nor should it be prohibited). This separation is in place to protect the church from the government and to protect the government from the church.
 
The separation of church and state did not just occur because the government didn't want the church involved in its affairs, the church didn't want the government involved in its affairs.
 
Personally, I must admit that electing a president that's not pink is a small step, compared to the day when the United States finally elect a president who openly says "I do not believe in God".

That's a day to look forward for.
 
I'm fine with a president believing in God as long as they aren't extreme in their religious beliefs. There are a lot of intelligent people that believe in God. It's just the extreme nuts that give religion a bad name.
 
I keep seeing news footage of American politicians saying things like:

"Let us pray"
"God Bless American"
"God Bless The American People"
"May God save America"
etc etc...

That's perfectly fine. Politicians have as much a right to express their beliefs as anyone else.

What really confuses me is how all American money having "In God We Trust" written on it isn't an endorsement of religion. It's the same sort of thing with how the pledge of allegiance was altered to have the line "under God" in it, but this is opening up a whole new can of worms, I'm afraid. :mrgreen:
 
To not have a state religion made faith property of the people themselves. This is one of the reasons while I believe that religion has lost popularity in Europe while staying popular in the United States.

What you got over there, is a competition between believes. You have churches that compete for believers, like companies compete for customers.

That eventually creates fundamentalists and extremists and also puts religion in a much higher position within the country, than if you had one single state religion.

I don't know if it's an advantage, really...
 
Srlsy, who cares what a president says about his own religion?

If he'd say Allah bless America would you all be shocked? i'm guessing yes :p
 
This makes me think about the fact that no alcohol can be sold or bought on Sunday in this state. Every time I go to the grocery store on Sunday and I see those tarps lining the shelves with booze I get so fucking aggravated. And no, I don't drink.
 
This makes me think about the fact that no alcohol can be sold or bought on Sunday in this state. Every time I go to the grocery store on Sunday and I see those tarps lining the shelves with booze I get so fucking aggravated. And no, I don't drink.

Are you really surprised though? You are in the North East, and that area was populated by the puritans, the most annoying of the annoying christian fundaMENTALists. Hell, they thought that dancing was a sin.
 
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