This is about the strangest thing I've seen in a while. For some reason & in some way, the legislation that Kentucky passed to establish their Homeland Security department had a strange requirement: the state had to acknowledge God & place a plaque on the wall at the department's headquarters.
Today's Lexington Herald-Leader reports that law requires the state to depend on God as vital in the protection of the people, & in the Homeland Security agency's training and educational materials. It goes further to mandate a plaque be prominently displayed at the entrance to the state's Emergency Operations Center & have the inscription of the 88-word statement that begins: "The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.’”
The language was inserted into the homeland security bill by a Southern Baptist minister who is also a state legislator.
Current Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear's office was not aware of the provision until reporters asked about it. The required plaque is still up, but the statutory language is not in the Homeland Security office's current mission statement, nor is it on its website.
First, how in the world did this sort of language get into a bill that actually passed? If it said that the citizens of Kentucky were relying on the power of Allah or Buddha or the Great Spirit in the Sky or the Big Oak Tree Out Back, there would have been an outcry to impeach every legislator that voted for the bill.
Second, I'm quite embarrassed that a Baptist would insert such language. Has the gentlemen not ever read the Baptist Faith & Message that specifically says it is not Biblical to use the state's money to advocate faith causes? Has he ever taken a Baptist history class, or any American history class, for that matter?
Third, I do hope Kentucky corrects such an egregious breach of the Wall of Separation between church & state.
Lastly, this shows the reason why we have free press. Without a free press that asks the hard questions & digs up the information, we would never have known about this.
Let's remember the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
4 comments:
Strange. In these uncommon times this is one of the most uncommon things that I have seen. I can't imagine how this happened, unless the Kentucky State Legislature felt a need to be politically correct. Most likely the legislators simply didn't read the bill. This definitely brings the First Amendment to mind.
I don't see anything wrong with this at all. I think it was done in the form of legislation as just an expression of faith in God. Since research project after research project has shown that anywhere from 80-90 some odd percent of our population beleives in God, the legislators were acting on the beliefs of the majority of their constituents.
In Thomas Jefferson's famous letter speaking of the "wall of separation between church & state" (which isn't found in the Constitution or any of its amendments as the American public has been duped into believing), Jefferson had no objection to individual states expressing such beliefs in God. As a matter of fact, Jefferson himself declared a day of fasting & prayer when he was governor of Virginia.
I'm sure the ACLU & others will file their lawuits since it's a Christian reference which is no longer tolerated, but every other religion is. If the plaque referred to any other god other than God, I think it would have gone unnoticed by the press & there would have been no such call for anyone's impeachment. The establishment of prayer rooms for Islamic students, for example at some of our public schools & universities at taxpayer expense has gone unpublicized & unchallenged.
I admire their backbone, but I'm sure that since the Federal appeals courts & the U.S. Supreme Courts are mostly leftist friendly, it won't last long. We'll see yet another example of how the Supreme Court has been allowed to overstep the limits of its authority. It's purpose Constitutionally is to interpret the law. It's rulings were never intended to become law nor trample the will of the people.
Dirk
http://tsalagiman2.blogspot.com/
Yeah, Dirk. I can see we certainly disagree on this issue since I would disagree with just about everything in your comment.
I won't join in on this one. I have one coming soon that will probably stir up the hornet's nest a bit, which is good. People need to think about this issue, not just read what Worldnet Daily or some other tabloid site has to say. Got to finish my research first.
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