Sohn: Beware of the Church of Government

The Tennessee General Assembly passed legislation allowing the words "In God We Trust" to be added to state license plates.
The Tennessee General Assembly passed legislation allowing the words "In God We Trust" to be added to state license plates.

Almost all faiths start with God. That God may not be called God, but the faiths that revere Yahweh, Allah and others are largely based on the same belief - there is a creator and a higher being than us, and faith in that comforts us.

What seems at odds with the professed tolerant tenets of Christianity is the intolerance - sometimes ignorance - of that fact. All too often, it seems, many self-professed Christians model a false pride that only Christianity is the "right" faith.

That is seemingly the rationale behind the Tennessee General Assembly's passage of a bill to allow Volunteer State drivers to choose license plates with the phrase "In God We Trust" on them. And perhaps this also was the drive in Bradley County to put "In God we Trust" on police cars.

The state House voted 85-0 to approve the bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Bill Sanderson of Kenton. The Senate had earlier approved the measure on a 29-1 vote.

Who can be against God, after all?

But that's just it. When you name "God," you're being against Him (Her) in all other iterations. What about Yahweh, Allah, Brahma?

One of our letter writers recently wrote that our lawmakers "frequently propose laws before thinking," so they not only forgot about cousin faiths, but also about the U.S. Constitution's prohibition against government establishing a religion. He offers lawmakers an alternative that's not half bad: a fill-in-the blank license plate motto:

"'In __ we trust.' Yahweh - Jews and Christians; Allah - Muslims; Brahma - Hindu; Zeus/ Jupiter - pagans; Beelzebub - Satanists; the holy Trinity - Christians; Woden - traditional Norse/Germans; the vast impersonal cosmos - atheists; I haven't decided - agnostics."

But our lawmakers aren't interested in inclusive understanding.

The bill's House sponsor said, "Our government was founded on religious belief. I'm not trying to cram anything down anyone's throat. We're not saying 'Jesus Christ.'"

By the way, Rep. Sanderson, our government was founded on religious freedom - not religious belief.

It seems that throughout our history, we've said we added God to promote united strength, yet we continue to let faith divide us.

References to God on our coins came about just as the Civil War erupted. Godly mottoes were added to paper money and to our Pledge of Allegiance in the 1950s because of "godless communism." President Dwight Eisenhower later said he wanted Congress to include "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance to "constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons."

The problem is simple: One size doesn't fit all.

The one almost-smart thing Tennessee lawmakers did with this license plate bill was make the plate with "In God We Trust" emblazoned on it as an option.

Before that change, ACLU-Tennessee Executive Director Hedy Weinberg termed it government "forcing citizens to include ideological religious messages on their cars, conscripting them into being mobile advertisements of religion." And the state attorney general's office wisely said that move would likely have been unconstitutional.

But unlike other optional vanity license plates which add an additional $35 above the standard plate's $21.50 price, the "In God We Trust" option is free.

Senate Minority Leader Lee Harris of Memphis, the only General Assembly member to vote against the bill, questioned why it should be free. He's right. If someone chooses the "In God We Trust" plate, Tennessee taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for it.

Certainly in these days of government scandal, we all need faith. And Bradley County, with its seemingly never-ending law enforcement scandals, especially needs all the help it can get.

But we question why Tennessee lawmakers - and some local authorities - continue to wave the god flag. Gov. Bill Haslam was forced last year to rightly veto a measure to make the Bible our "state book." He noted that such a title would trivialize the Bible.

The First Amendment of our Constitution - freedom of religion and freedom from our government imposing a religion - along with our founding fathers' policy that we maintain a wall of separation between church and state, means you and your children can pray in school and public meetings, but public schools and governments cannot require you to pray. The First Amendment also means the government cannot endorse any particular religion - which is why you can paint the Ten Commandments on your car, but the government cannot emblazon a Buddha likeness on the license plate you are required to buy.

Faith is a personal thing. Not a government thing.

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