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Wallace, Idaho
– Nary a day, nor an hour, goes by that we do not receive
via e-mail some Harrumph to the effect which is as follows,
and it is more annoying than all the Terri Schiavo emails
of a few years ago.
You’ve read it. I begins like this:
“Do You Believe in God? NBC this morning
had a poll on this question. They had the highest number of
responses that they have ever had for one of their polls,
and the percentage was the same as this: ‘86% to keep
the words, IN God We Trust and God in the Pledge of Allegiance
14% against.’
“That is a pretty 'commanding' public
response. I was asked to send this on if I agreed or delete
if I didn't. Now it is your turn ... It is said that 86% of
Americans believe in God. Therefore, I have a very hard time
understanding why there is such a mess about having ‘In
God We Trust’ on our money and having God in the Pledge
of Allegiance.
“Why is the world catering to this 14%?”
And it goes on with admonitions to forward it
to everybody we know, to prove up our Christian confession.
Well. We have not forwarded it to anybody because we think
it’s imbecilic, and that in fact the presence of the
phrase “In God We Trust” on a Federal Reserve
Note is as big a blasphemy as the picture of ol’ Andrew
Jackson – who fought the corrupt notion of a central
bank till his death – on the twenty.
We have absolutely no qualms about the phrase
“In God We Trust” emblazoned on real money. We
carry our good-luck charm, a 1910 St. Gaudens double-eagle
everywhere we travel. Nothing like an ounce of pure gold to
bribe the jailors. In a sweet simple arch below the eagle
and above the sun, there’s the phrase: “In God
We Trust.” Now, we would fight tooth and claw to preserve
that noble sentiment on any silver or gold coin of advertised
purity, or even on any gold and silver certificate issued
by the United Snakes government, which (unlike our old 1957
A and B certificates) is redeemable in perpetuity.
Those who insist upon the phrase “In God
We Trust” appearing on the debauched currencies of the
Federal Reserve, or upon the base-metal slugs issued by the
Treasury falsely representing them be fractional denominations
of real dollars, are wrong on a couple of counts.
Let us toss back a few Biblical admonitions.
It is the 3rd of the 10 Commandments. It says, with a visionary’s
simplicity: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord
thy God in Vain.”
Then fast-forward to the New Testament, where
we’re admonished to pay our help “measure for
measure.” We don’t see where the cost of printing
a slip of paper measures up to a day’s, week’s
or month’s labour. Sorry, buddy. I work for gold or
silver; I’ve got a lifetime of IOUs in the desk drawer
from various deadbeats, and the United Snakes government is
no different.
So what is “Christian” about demanding
the appearance of the phrase “In God We Trust”
upon a Godless bank’s Godless piece of paper? Sorry,
but we think we would be consigned to Hell for advancing such
a concept. This is not just putting lipstick on a pig. This
invoking of His name to justify a fundamentally evil form
of paper is a go-to-jailer.
So sign this petition instead:
“Dear Helicopter Ben Bernake:
Please remove the name of the Lord my God from your currencies.
Neither my Lord nor His Son believed in the issuance of interest-bearing
debt, and as you put your finger on the inflation index, please
remember this: a subset of the 10 Commandments, to be found
at Exodus Chapter 20, says, again with the eloquence of the
non-lawyer, “Thou Shalt Not Steal.”
OK, two lessons here. First of all, Don’t
put God’s imprimatur where it doesn’t honestly
belong. Second, Don’t rip off your neighbour’s
stash.
Time you knew it, but I have a personal relationship
with my Lord through his Son, Jesus. No, we don’t talk
every day, because I am a lousy listener. I’m not even
sure He is happy to have a lout like me aboard, but He put
no conditions upon my salvation. But I’ll be goddamned
to see His name drug through the muck of the Federal Reserve
Bank. The joy of Salvation deserves much better.
In God We Trust? You betcha, but only
on silver and gold, and honest measures of same. Otherwise,
don’t piss the Big Guy off.
By David Bond, Editor
The Silver Valley Mining
Journal
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