In "?" We Trust

Last night, I came across this:

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and it got me to thinking.

Phrases along the lines of One Nation Under God and In God We Trust don't offend me at all.

But would you expect them to, being that they're part of my personal belief system?

However, I understand that we're a multicultural country, and there are other citizens who don't share my beliefs.

So what are we to do about the coins and the Pledge?

Let me suggest re-writing what they say in the following manner:

One nation under our Creator

and

In our Creator we trust

When my cousin, Denise, was a toddler, my folks and I owned a car called an Impala.

We frequently picked up Denise to take her "bye-bye" with us, and she and I would sit in the backseat.

There was a radio speaker on the back of our seat with a logo of an impala in the center, and Denise was fascinated by the picture and was touching it--just at the moment when Daddy had decided to turn on the radio!

Denise was so proud of herself! She thought that she had turned on the radio--and we let her believe that for a long time, watching for her to pat the picture and turning on the radio when it happened, which never ceased to thrill her.

So, this was the belief-system that she was satisfied with until she learned the truth.

And so it goes with us and our personal beliefs.

We were created by some force.

It could be the traditional Judeo-Christian God of my own belief system--and I'm personally standing firm in this conviction while realizing that it isn't my right to impose my personal beliefs on any of you!

This means that, while sticking to my own guns, I have to support your right to believe that you were created by a number of possibilities--everything from God to a fertility god (Remind me to tell you a funny story involving my unexpected encounter with one of those fellows!) to a big bang.

Oh yes! I'm open to the possibility of the Big Bang Theory, but I still give God the credit for it!

But we'll have to agree thar we've been created by something--and, seeing as how we've materialized, whatever force created us is obviously worthy of our trust!

That takes care of the money business--so, let's get on with the Pledge.

Are we One nation under our Creator?

I went to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary that comes with my AOL and copied how it defined the word under:


Main Entry: [2]under
Function: preposition
Date: before 12th century
1 : below or beneath so as to be overhung, surmounted, covered, protected, or concealed by <under sunny skies> <a soft heart under a stern exterior> <under cover of darkness>
2 a : subject to the authority, control, guidance, or instruction of <served under the general> <under the terms of the contract> b : receiving or undergoing the action or effect of <under pressure> <courage under fire> <under the influence of alcohol> <the image of a point under a mapping>
3 : within the group or designation of <under this heading>
4 : less or lower than (as in size, amount, or rank); especially : falling short of a standard or required degree <under the legal age> <under par>


If you look through several of these definitions, I believe you'll find at least one that shows us to be under our Creator.

Keeping these thoughts in mind, I believe that simply changing the term God to our Creator would be the fitting thing to do, because, no matter what you call this force, every single one of us came to be because of it!