The SandGram

Christianity in America “Oh God, where art thou?”

Recently, my wife and I bought a second home that we are in the process of fixing up and turning into a rental.  We know the owner very well, a retired Air Force Officer who was once married to the most beautiful four foot two Marine Corps truck driver you have ever seen.  Some of the stuff that Bud gave us included a box with important keep sakes from her time in the Marines.  There were photographs of his wife during WWII, some in her uniform around the trucks she was tasked with driving and other odds and ends that meant a lot to her.

One of the items in the box that intrigued me was a small New Testament Bible with a Marine Corps Eagle Globe and Anchor embossed on the outside cover.  It’s very worn and fragile and reminds me of the small Bibles they hand out from the Chaplains office on Base. I carried one in Iraq and took it to Afghanistan as well.  It’s probably the same type of Bible that EB Sledge once used as he fought across the pacific.  Reading a passage and then making notes about the day’s events around the scripture which is how he ended up writing With the Old Breed.

What I really find iconic is the first page of the Bible.

 The White House Washington

 As Commander-in-Chief I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States.  Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration.  It is a fountain of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul.

                                                Signed

                                                Franklin D. Roosevelt

This was given to all service members during World War Two and so far I’ve found different versions for the Army/Navy and Marines with the emblems on the cover.  All of them contain the same message from the President.  We were a nation of Christians back then, from top down.

It brings back a message that I fear has been lost over the last 30 years and that is God.  You could probably say along with Christianity as a whole in the United States.  Why is it that we fight so hard to separate ourselves as a Christian founded nation?  It was good enough when the framers of this country ensured that “God” was included into the Constitution and back in 1864 when we put “In God we trust” on the money as a standard that represented our nation.  Up to sixty years ago, even the President of the United States, a Democrat, found solitude in the Bible enough to have his message front and center on the first page of the book.  Could you see that happening today without worries of getting sued by C.A.I.R. because you offended a Muslim or say a Wiccan?

I know when this book was printed, we were losing men at the cyclic rate all over the world and maybe as they lay wounded out in some far off fox-hole, they pulled this little pocket Bible out and read the scripture.  It might have pulled them through some tough times, or even taken a bullet that would have pierced their heart, who knows.  In this one case, a young woman who served our country felt it was important enough to keep among her most cherished possessions. 

I am proud and profess to be a Christian; we go to church and say prayers each night at the table and before bed with my children, and attempt to instill a moral compass in them that we learned through our Christian upbringing.  Honestly though, I get the feeling we are holding on to something the Nation is attempting to do away with.  Because the Courts keep ruling on previous rulings based off of precedence, the Left, Liberal, Progressive party (whatever this party calls themselves this week) is slowly pushing God out of our lives.  Like my Uncle Bruce says “They are doing it the same way you cook a frog.  Nice and slow.”  See if you threw a Frog into a boiling pot, he would jump out, so you slowly raise the heat until he boils and then it’s too late.  Same thing here as they slowly squeeze religion out of Country.  Pretty soon we will all be closet believers so that we don’t lose that promotion or offend our neighbor.  This isn’t endorsing mass recruitment into any faith, but if we aren’t careful, and we keep moving away from being a nation of Christians,  we will lose our identity or worse. Do we want to be treated as the Christians of the Middle East are?     

If you are reading this and think that there is too much Christianity already in our Nation and would like to do something about it, then write your representatives and have them start by removing all religious holidays as federally mandated days off.  I would like to see them working over Christmas and Easter like the rest of us in the private sector.  Boy, I bet you’d hear the atheists in the Government scream the loudest when they lose their paid vacation!  Then make them work on Sunday as well since religion doesn’t mean anything to them.  The list could go on and on.

Just something to think about I guess.  Enjoy your faith folks and say a little prayer for our Nation, I think she needs it, because I sure don’t see the folks at the top doing it in this PC world we live in today unlike our leaders of yesterday who were willing to put an endorsement on the first page of a Bible.

Semper Fi,

Taco

Tags: Christians, loss of faith in America, Religion, The Bible