God's Country
By Michael Heath
May 29, 2008 - 4:09:55 AM
Paulie and I just returned from a trip to the New York
City area. I am always astounded at the difference between Maine and the
big city. Maine has wide open spaces. The big city has people herded like
cattle, then packed into subway cars like sardines. Maine is peaceful and
tranquil. The city is filled with the clack and clatter of the subway, the wail
of ambulances, and the non-stop blaring and honking of car horns.
It is with good reason that tourists who
start arriving here this time of year call our state "God's Country." It
is easy to glorify God when one sees birch trees standing by the water's edge,
or a patch of green ferns quietly unfolding their leaves in search of the cool,
moist air of a Maine morning.
Until recently, the city dweller also had a constant
reminder of the presence of God, and that was the phrase "In God We Trust" on
his coins. Unfortunately, the new coins I saw in New York have removed
this phrase, along with the words "Liberty" and "E Pluribus Unum." When I
say removed, I mean that the words have been reduced to fine print, and placed
out of sight on the milled edge of the coins. I am told that the original
purpose of the milled edge was to keep thieves from shaving off a piece of the
coin, which at the time was made of gold or silver. Shaving off a piece
of gold was the same as counterfeiting, and was punished by death.
But hiding our nation's motto is worse than
counterfeiting. By erasing the words "In God We Trust," we are removing our common
affirmation that God is the ultimate source of our laws and the guarantor of
our rights. The long and bloody history of mankind teaches us that
every government which turns its back on God quickly becomes a brutal
tyranny. There appear to be no exceptions to this historical
principle.
There is something far worse than removing the name of
God from our currency; and that is to introduce a system of ethics in which
evil acts are called good. We have such a system of counterfeit ethics at work
in America today. The two worst examples of this strange inversion of moral
values are "Freedom of Choice," and "Gay Marriage.' In "Freedom of
Choice" an unwanted baby is murdered; in "Gay Marriage" homosexual perversion
receives the honor which belongs to marriage alone. These are fine-sounding
phrases for unspeakable practices. Perhaps a better phrase for a marriage
between two homosexuals would be "counterfeit marriage." The phrase
sounds puzzling at first, but it describes the matter perfectly
My recent trip to New York also reminded me that our challenges are growing
greater. If society decides to jettison the words "Liberty" and "In God We
Trust," those who remain faithful will have to work all the harder. Secular
humanists achieve their goals incrementally, and they are patient and
relentless in their work. Right now, they are bold enough to remove the
words "God" "Liberty" and "E Pluribus Unum" from our currency. Soon they will
be bold enough to call for a complete end to marriage and the family.
They have already done so in other nations. If we want to keep our way of
life, we must remain vigilant; and we must match and exceed their efforts at
every turn.
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