{"id":13851,"date":"2015-04-26T16:53:36","date_gmt":"2015-04-26T20:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=13851"},"modified":"2018-03-20T13:58:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T17:58:22","slug":"written-by-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/written-by-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Written by God?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"AmericanI don’t pay as much attention to American politics as I suppose I should<\/strong>, in part because despite the entertaining craziness of some of their politicians, the internal politics seldom affect Canadians, and also in part because the craziness not only baffles me – it scares me. But this week I paid attention when I read year-old statements made by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who is quoted on Rawstory <\/a>as saying,<\/p>\n

“I think we got off the track when we allowed our government to become a secular government. When we stopped realizing that God created this nation, that he wrote the Constitution, that it\u2019s based on biblical principles.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whoa<\/strong>. Christian revisionism and theological ideologies packed into a single statement. And so wrong, I hardly know where to start.<\/p>\n

The country I come from
\nIs called the Midwest
\nI\u2019s taught and brought up there
\nThe laws to abide
\nAnd that the land that I live in
\nHas God on its side
\nBob Dylan: With God on Our Side<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The US government was formed as a secular government from its birth. Separation of church and state and all that (First Amendment<\/a>) was put into the Constitution<\/a> quite early (1791). That amendment, Wikipedia<\/a> tells us,<\/p>\n

…prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The nation itself was created by a loose group of soldiers and politicians, many of whom were either secular or even atheist<\/a>, after a bitter and bloody war with Britain (and later, other nations). The Constitution was written by a smaller group of similarly motivated men. And it’s very definitely NOT based on biblical principles (principles which include<\/a> stoning people for minor offences, killing your children, taking slaves, not eating pork and having animals maul children to death…).<\/p>\n

Not to mention that the nation we know of as America wasn’t actually born overnight with the stroke of a pen, but is the result of more than a century of expansion, war, politics and exploitation. At least that’s the history as I understand it.<\/p>\n

I’m pretty sure the millions of indigenous people who were killed, disenfranchised, hunted, humiliated, raped and brutally reduced to second class citizens don’t think it was the work of any benevolent god. You see the digits of a deity anywhere in that? DeLay obviously does; which speaks volumes about his personal vision of a god. A nasty, xenophobic, mean-spirited, vindictive god.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n