Last time around, I remarked on the explosion of "In God We Trust" in the past couple months. Another slogan that's being worn to death is "God Bless America." Some are pushing to make the old showtune the "national hymn."
I guess it's never occurred to these folks that the very concept of a "national hymn" violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The establishment of a national hymn is unquestionably an establishment of religion.
But that's not even the point of this article, merely a side issue. The main point is that people have been saying, singing, and shouting "God Bless America" for the past two months with incredible fervor. And what has been God's response? Well, last week, he blessed America by crashing a jumbo jet into a residential area of Queens, killing another 265 people. Guess he felt his 2001 murder spree needed another boost.
All the prayers, all the beseeching and imploring God for mercy and relief from the suffering of September 11 that has been done in the past several weeks... All of it accomplished exactly nothing. Unless God has a seriously warped idea of what mercy and relief mean.
At the risk of repeating what I said in this forum two weeks ago, how can anyone truly believe in a merciful God, after all that has happened? The past two months have given so many, many examples of how easy it is to poke holes in the idea of an all-knowing, all-loving deity. And certainly enough ammunition to show that the idea that "God Bless America" is nothing more than a ridiculous notion.
He sure seems to have it in for New York City, at any rate.
