One Name – and It isn’t Allah

By: American Decency Staff

God Bless you!  It’s a common courtesy said millions of times a day – especially during allergy season.

Presidents have long closed speeches and State of the Union addresses with a similar statement – usually “God Bless you and God Bless these United States of America” – or some variation of the theme.

And, if you’re not out of your seat getting a hotdog, it’s common practice to go from singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” to “God Bless America” during the 7^th inning stretch at major league baseball games.

Who would have thought that a sentiment which is a daily part of American life – two little words, “God Bless” – would cause some to go into apoplectic fits.  Yet that is exactly what is happening in case after case all across the country.

“God bless the military, their families, and the civilians who work with them” reads a sign that has stood at Marine Corps Base Hawaii for 14 years.  Yet now that sign honoring those who serve and their families is being targeted by anti-Christian activist, Mikey Weinstein, who makes it his mission to drive any vestige of Christianity out of the military.  Through the organization he founded, Military Religious Freedom Foundation, Weinstein has a long history of filing suits against the military in regards to any innocuous reference to Christianity.

Weinstein told a Honolulu newspaper, the sign stands out "like a tarantula on a wedding cake."

Weinstein might get a high mark in the use of such creative imagery, but he fails at Constitution 101.

In a letter to Col. Sean C. Killeen, the base commanding officer, Mikey Weinstein’s organization wrote:  “This sign is a brazen violation of the No Establishment clause of the Constitution, as it sends the clear message that your installation gives preference to those who hold religious beliefs over those who do not, and those who prefer a monotheistic intervening god over deities or theologies.”

Yet Colonel Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, told OneNewsNow:  “Only someone with a great misunderstanding of the First Amendment or an axe to grind against religion would claim that such a slogan poses a threat or is in any way unconstitutional.  The real threat is posed by those who want to whitewash any reference to God from public discourse – even ones as innocuous and uplifting as this one."

As Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal organization which defends religious liberty, so aptly wrote to the base commander "The Establishment Clause does not provide a heckler's veto to those who find offense. MRFF and its members are entitled to feel offense, but it is part of living in a pluralistic military community."

Yet it’s not just the military coming under attack for the usage of “God Bless.”

Last year a high school girl in Tennessee was sent to the principal’s office and ultimately received in-school suspension.  Her offense?  Saying “God bless you” when someone in class sneezed.  The student claims the teacher told her there would be no reference to God in her classroom, and when the student responded that that was in violation of her first amendment rights, the teacher sent her to the principal’s office. Another student in the class took a photo of a posted list of words the teacher has banned from being used in her classroom.  Along with words such as “stupid’ is “bless you” on the teacher’s list of words not allowed in her class.

This is not an isolated incident in America’s public schools.

A Louisiana high School principal is currently being targeted by the ACLU because he ended a letter posted on the school’s website with this inspirational closing:  “The Future Starts Today – May God Bless You All.”

The ACLU claims that simple use of God’s name was a promotion of Christianity.  The ACLU also took issue with the school’s student club, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, who set up prayer boxes that displayed “Christian Symbols.”  The school board will be discussing the issue on October 1.

As Louisiana Representative Mike Johnson stated, “This is typical of the ACLU. They’re on a seek-and-destroy mission for all things religious.”

However, it’s not all things “religious” that the ACLU is seeking to eliminate – just all things Christian. 

The ACLU claims, as they wrote to the superintendent of this Louisiana school district:  “The United States Constitution requires public schools to ensure that state-supported activity is not used for religious indoctrination.”  Yet where is their opposition to the state-supported religious indoctrination of Islam within public schools and the use of the name of “Allah”?

School districts all across the country are teaching the Five Pillars of Islam as part of their curriculum, but “God bless you” is considered “indoctrination” by the ACLU.

For example, many parents in Spring Hill, TN are rightfully upset after their middle school children were forced to write “Allah in the only God” as part of a lesson about Islam.  Other world religions which will be studied are Hindu and Buddhism, but there is no mention of Jesus or Christianity.  As one mother voiced her concern:  “For them to spend three weeks on Islam after having skipped Christianity, it seems to be that they are making a choice about which religion to discuss.”  Another angry mom stated:  “A Christian child should not be made to write that.”

And nearly 1,500 parents are joining forces in one Georgia school district to protest the indoctrination of Islam and the neglect of Christianity within the school curriculum.  As one upset parent stated:  “My daughter had to learn the Shiad, and the five pillars of Islam, which is what you learn to convert, but they never once learned anything about the Ten Commandments or anything about God.”

This same curriculum is also teaching that Allah is the same god worshiped by Christians and Jews.  As this photo shows. 

However, there is only one God and His name certainly isn’t Allah.  It is His blessing we seek for our nation. 

Yet when our nation’s institutions are banned from seeking His blessing and even mentioning His name, it may very well be His judgment that we receive.

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.  And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. …

“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.”  (Deuteronomy 28:  1-2; and v.15)

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Mark Friday evening, October 16 and Saturday morning, October 17 on your calendar and plan to join us here at American Decency for The Rising Tide:  Persecution in America.

What:  The Rising Tide:  Persecution in America

When:  Friday, October 16 – 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Saturday, October 17 – 9:00 am – 11:30 am 
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