Published: March 20, 2008 05:16 pm            

Letter to the editor - Friday, March 21, 2008

God is father of our nation

The Washington Monument was started on July 4, 1848, and in the cornerstone was placed a Holy Bible. The monument was finished in 1873. It was inaugurated in 1888 by President James Polk. The monument is 555 feet high. The top is angled on the four sides to a point. In the marble on all four sides of the angled top are four aluminum plates. On the plates, two words in Latin are inscribed on them. Laus Deo.

In English, “Praise be to God.”

The fact is the word “God” is inscribed in many public places and areas in our nation’s capital. From the top of the monument you can see a perfect cross in the groundworks. The White House at the north end of the cross, the Capitol Building to the east. The Lincoln Memorial to the west, and the Jefferson Memorial to the south. A cross, but what about the separation of the church and state? Surely our forefathers wanted it. They put it in our Constitution, didn’t they?

No. It was not in our Constitution and never has been.

There are 50 landings in the monument on your climb to the top. If you don’t take the elevator, on the 24th stop is a presentation from Sunday School children of Philadelphia and New York City, quoting Proverbs 10:7 and 22:6, and Luke 18:16.

God is the father of our nation. George Washington is the father of our country. His prayer to God at his inauguration was as follows:

“Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that thou wilt keep the United States in thy holy protection that thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large, and finally that thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the divine author of our blessed religion and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech thee, through Jesus Christ our lord. Amen.”

There are some ideologists today that would like to change all of this. They don’t want the Pledge of Allegiance, prayer or the Ten Commandments recited in school. How will our children learn if we don’t teach them?

Please remember, “Unless the lord builds the house its builders labor in vain. Unless the lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.” (Psalm 127).

William J. Kuntz

Kokomo

        

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