Up in the Pulpit...Wait, I Meant "Soapbox"

They're at it again, ladies and gentlemen - your ever-diligent Congress-critters. Creating jobs? Fixing the economy? Nope. Surely you jest!

No, they're busy voting on a resolution to affirm "In God We Trust" as a national motto.

First of all, what about the Establishment Clause of the Constitution, stating that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, do they not understand...apart from, apparently, all of it?

Second...when, exactly, did elected political representatives assume (and presume) this kind of quasi-preacher role? They ought to be busy rendering unto Caesar rather than playing in the clerical sandbox. I don't know about you, but I don't cast my vote in the expectation that the person whose box I dutifully fill in with my Number 2 pencil will have any authority whatsoever to dictate my convictions of faith to me. I find it offensive.

Third...this notion that just because something is non-sectarian - i.e., "God" in the generic as opposed to the Catholic or the Baptist or the Mormon or whoever's version - makes it non-controversial is just, as my long-ago British boss would have said, "Not On." Words have power, and once you enshrine a "God" into government, people will start to ladle on their interpretations and make it into their particular version, something more definite and defined both. The more who weigh in, the more solid that single interpretation becomes. That does nothing in service of the nation's diversity. It's borderline fascist.

And, finally...appropriately enough, just headed out of Samhain into what for me is the New Year...where exactly does this leave those of us not in any kind of traditional mold? The agnostics? The atheists? Individuals like myself, newly brave about being out of the broom closet, at least here on the Series of Tubes? People for whom God is, perhaps, more often than not, Goddess? Or both in tandem, male and female principles alike, equal but not separate?

Are we not equal citizens? Should we be obliged to kowtow to something we do not believe in, just because some sanctimonious politico thinks it's OK to mingle his/her personal faith with the national interest?

And what about the Buddhists and the Hindus and the Muslims and many another marginalized faith? What happened to "I lift my lamp beside the golden door," and the welcoming shores that used to characterize the States?

I really do fret about what is going on, there south of the border. Those joking maps online labeling so much of the country as "Jesusland" are looking more frighteningly real every day. And for the sake of my friends and family still there, I really don't like to see this kind of garbage taking precedence, when there is so much that could be so much more meaningful that desperately needs doing.