The "Inseparability of Religion and the American State"
One Nation Under God for Atheists

by John Q. Pridger

To deny the existence of God, is to overlook something of extraordinary importance. Pridger

The thinking atheist or agnostic feels that reason itself is sufficient guide in all things, and that notions of God and religion are little more than useless and primitive fable and superstition. They are quite satisfied to rely on the revelations of science above any alleged divine revelation. The word "nature" is sufficiently broad to describe the natural world, both within and without. I have no problem with this — after all, in all modesty, I purport to be a man of reason myself.
    It's a free country after all, and every man has the right to believe or not believe whatever he so chooses. Being fully aware of my own ignorance and limitations in most matters, I used to consider myself an agnostic, and by some standards I'm still an agnostic. I used to enjoy making great sport of religion, often proclaiming myself and atheist for the shear joy of seeing the reaction of friends and neighbors in my particular neck of the Bible Belt. But that was when I was much younger — before I'd discovered politics and all the dark shadows lurking behind political facades.
    Oddly enough, it was a political awakening that led to my religious awakening, rather than some sort of miraculous church-born conversion. But, perhaps it was at least a facsimile of a divine revelation that led to my enlightenment. Not that I ever became active in either politics or religion. I neither worship in the traditional sense, nor often vote in elections. Many would say that the former makes me a fallen soul still, and the latter disqualifies me from expressing my political opinions — especially in political dissent. Maybe so, but it is a free country, and I claim protection under the First Amendment to the Constitution. I vote with my pen (or keyboard), rather than at the polls, and I vote for American Constitutionalism, limited republican government, and for the notion that all legitimate government is not only "under the people," but "under God." None of these things are ever on the ballot — in any case, to paraphrase Jim Hightower, "If God intended for me to go to the polls, he'd provide candidates worth voting for." It's not that I refuse to vote, it's just that I reserve my votes to candidates I honestly want to help elect, and such candidates are scarce as hens' teeth.
    One thing that often caused me some wonderment before my own conversion, was that even the most progressive and free thinking of our founders were careful to make sure that our nation was acknowledged to be a nation formed under the authority of God, evoking "the Creator" and "nature's God" as the Authority under which men were naturally endowed with the right to establish their own independent government and proclaim and invoke their own "unalienable rights." Though Jefferson was openly hostile to most church-based religious doctrine and dogma, he nonetheless knew the importance of pure religion. Jefferson, of course, was an admitted Deist and thus outside the pale of the contemporary religious mainstream. Yet he not only claimed a belief in God, but also claimed to be a "true Christian."
    He was very cognoscente of the fact that tyranny has stalked the western world for almost two millennium in the robes of the clergy and under the protective guise of the Christian religion. He rightly considered it a great danger to allow our new government to come into being as any sort of religious theocracy, and he swore eternal battle against tyranny over them minds of men. Yet, he knew that governments of any character evolve toward tyranny regardless of ideological underpinnings. Prior to the establishment of the United States government, almost all governments had been forms of theocracy, either under the direct thumb of the Church, or under "god-kings" or rulers claiming the "divine right" to rule.
    Jefferson never considered the proposition of establishing a "God-less" state. In any case, such a state would have been politically impossible to establish, since the overwhelming majority of the American population were professing Christians of one denomination or another. It was difficult enough to establish the proposition of the "separation of church and state," and get that proposition approved by the representatives of the several former colonies. In any case, Jefferson and his compatriots knew of the importance of religion in the rule of men's lives and as the underpinning of any government of men. So the author of the Declaration of Independence proclaimed the "divine rights" of men — not of the state or its rulers. Rulers, and governments, have no divine right to rule — only men are endowed by their Creator with divine rights — and men collectively have the right to establish their own government. Such government's first and foremost role and duty to the people was to provide protection under the color of law for the divine right of men to be self-governing. It was recognized, of course, that the collective power men, in the form of a uniting government, instituted "by consent of the governed," was necessary for the common good — to protect the people from other states and governments and their military power, and provide the necessary environment for citizens to best enjoy their "the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
    The principle of the separation of church and state did not imply that the state did not recognize God and religion. God and religion, in fact, defined the parameters under which our government was given its legitimacy. That the state was "under God" was a transcendental Truth universally understood to be the very wellspring of men's authority to bring such government into being. Without this acknowledgement, the new government would have lacked the support of its citizens and thus any semblance of legitimacy — things which only the acknowledgement of God and the divine rights of man had given it.
    A lot of water passes under the bridge in two hundred years. Our founders never allowed that there would every come a time when a majority of the American population would forsake a belief in God, or fail to realize how important it is to make sure that the state does not accede to the status of being the ultimate and supreme authority over men, effectively usurping the position our founders so wisely reserved for God alone. Several wrote of the importance of God and religion to the American form of government, stating that such government would be impossible, and would cease to function if the spirit of religion was ever nationally abandoned.
    While the great majority of Americans today still profess Christianity as their religion, even some of them are beginning to believe that the principle of the separation of church and state means that the machinery of state itself must be bereft of any allusion to God or religion — that there is, in fact, a thick brick and mortar wall between church and state that forbids any official acknowledgement of God or religion. They are beginning to forget that the very founding legitimacy of their government is steeped in God and religion, as surly as a tree is set upon its roots. They are beginning to forget that this nation's very first act was to proclaim and insure the protection of their own God-given rights — that they, and not the government, are the true sovereigns by nothing less than an act of God. These formerly acknowledged truths are now being called into question, and even many professing Christians are beginning to doubt — to forget.
    It's ironic that a heathen such as Pridger feels it necessary to wake people up and make them remember from whence their rights and the founding authority for their national government sprang — hopefully, before it's too late to redeem the nation from catastrophic folly.

The following are Pridger quotes which may be helpful.

GOD AND AMERICA
A Special Relationship
And — What if we became convinced that our nation was founded on a fraud?

If we ever became convinced (say, by the lawyers at the ACLU and federal court justices), that this is not a "Nation Under God," and that there really is no such thing as "God-given rights," and that it is actually unconstitutional for our government, or any state or local government, to officially, or even unofficially, acknowledge the existence of God, then we would effectively be declaring the Declaration of Independence a fraudulent document. We would be allowing that our national existence is based on fraudulent claims. Pridger

If our Declaration of Independence is proven to be a fraud, based on fraudulent claims of God-given rights, then our government, Constitution, and our very national existence, would effectively become null and void. Every lawyer will tell you that any "legal" document or contract, that can be proven to be based on fraud is null and void, as if it was never signed. Pridger

The ACLU holds that acknowledging God (or anything that could be construed as a religious belief), in any way, shape, or form, either officially or unofficially, on "any public property" is an attempt at the establishment of an official religion, and thus a violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Pridger

The ACLU, of course, acknowledges the United States Constitution as the undisputed and unshakable "law of the land." But that "law of the land" has it's sole legal foundation in the people's assumed right to establish their own government in their own independent nation. That right was predicated on the Declaration of Independence, which invoked God (and thus religion), as the Divine Authority, and legitimizing basis, of that declaration. Pridger

If "We the People" ever allow the lawyers at the ACLU, or even our own Supreme Court justices, to convince us that this is not a nation "Under God," and that they alone are the final arbiters of Constitutional law, and thus our national destiny, we are indeed lost. Pridger

The ACLU, and the legal profession in general, would like to believe that they alone have the necessary wisdom, knowledge, and political savvy to shape our political future and nation destiny. Pridger

"We the People," Pridger fears, are losing our God-given prerogatives, because people trained at law (Constitutional law, in particular), are rising to godhead-ship. Pridger

If we ever allow our courts to expunge God and Christianity from our national identity, the story of the late great USSR will eventually be repeated by the story of the "late, great, United States of America." Pridger

Pridger, who is a practicing "Jeffersonian Christian," is inclined to be somewhat evangelical from time to time. While he doesn't push his particular denomination, he does try to get those Americans who wander in the dark to "see the light." The truth is, we owe our favored position among men and nations to God, whether you happen to believe God exists or not. Pridger

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them...
    "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...
    "We, therefore..., appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions...
    "...And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." The Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776 (emphasis added).

Thus, our nation was born, invoking God's law and His Divine Protection, and declaring that men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Though the final form of the national government took place some eleven years later, with the adoption of the Constitution, on September 17, 1787, the Constitution is not the "founding document" of the nation. While the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land, the Declaration of Independence that preceded it gave it undisputed legitimacy in the eyes of the People, and eventually the world.
    Whether or not you are of a religious bent, every American should become totally cognoscente of the fact that this nation of ours was conceived by men who invoked the authority of the Creator to justify their their rebellion against the mother country — and that they declared an independent nation, under the divine guidance of God.
    Whether or not God "personally" favored the cause of American independence, our forefathers won the fight, and heartily gave thanks to God for their deliverance. They firmly believed that they had had God on their side, otherwise they could not have persevered against the world's greatest and most powerful military power of the day. Had they lost, many would have been executed as rebels, traitors, terrorists, enemy combatants, and other criminal categories. Pridger

As much as it vexes the ACLU and many others who are determined to expunge God and religion from America's official identity, this is an historical fact of great merit and ever increasing importance to us today. It's simple. Either "We the People" enjoy God-given rights, or our antecedents have been played as fools for two centuries. If we really don't have God-given rights, we must merely have government decreed and controlled privileges. If we were to find out, or allow, that there is no God, or God-given rights, the national government itself would be a fraud and a sham (and thus legally null and void). If this were true, "We the People" have been defrauded, and ought to be due some compensation, reparations, or repatriation. Perhaps the argument could successfully be made that we are still technically British Subjects. Pridger

There was no official Church or religion in the United States of America, and the First Amendment to the Constitution declared that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." It was, however, universally understood that the nation was a Christian nation in fact, based on Christian moral and ethical conventions. Not officially, but in the fact that the population was almost a hundred percent professing Christians of one denomination or another. Pridger

The population of the United States is no longer nearly 100% Christian, though a large majority remain professing Christians. We have a great assortment of religious minorities, and an ever rising number of secular humanists with agnostic or atheistic leanings. Be that as it may, the nation still retains its Christian identity and, more importantly, remains "a nation Under God" in the minds of all but a relatively small minority of spoilers. These spoiler would deliver us a nation wherein the national government itself becomes the people's "godhead." Pridger

Few of us, no matter what our religious faith, or lack thereof, want to live under an all-powerful government which usurps the powers of the Almighty. Power, of course, corrupts — and almighty power might tend to corrupt an almighty amount. Pridger

Pridger knows that it's pretty difficult in this day and age for many people to believe in a literal God — or a God at all. But bear with me for a little while, my friends, and let me attempt to show you the Light and the Way. Pridger

On religion: The truth of the matter is, "God only knows" — the rest of us, at least most of us, don't. Pridger

That's not to say we don't know whether or not there is a God. Of course, there most certainly is. This is perhaps the only thing Pridger knows with any degree of certainty. Problems and disagreements arise, however, in how the term is defined. If you define the term one way there are some who will believe and some who won't. Define it another way and nobody would believe. Define it in yet another way, and even most atheists could not help but believe. Pridger

There's no simple way for simple people to define God in a few words. That's why Pridger likes Plato's definition: "God is Truth, and Light His Shadow." Turn it around to God is Light, and Truth His Shadow, and that works too. Pridger

In other words, to the rational and scientific mind that would acknowledge the existence of God, God is the Totality of Truth. Man glimpses God in every manifestation of the natural world around him and within his own mind, soul, body, and being. Realization and appreciation of this can only come through at least a facsimile of Enlightenment. Pridger

"The name of God is Truth." Ancient Hindu proverb

Enlightenment is a matter of knowledge and insight, combined with an awareness of morality and good. Wisdom. Pridger

Wisdom and enlightenment do not depend upon great volumes of knowledge and learning, but upon good will and rightness of thought. Pridger

Men tend to dance around truth, spar with it, accepting only this or that truth, along with many falsehoods masquerading as truth, and thus many fail to see or acknowledge God. Pridger

Pridger's personal definition of God is: "The Universal Living Truth." Pridger

We often hear of a "Christian" God or some other brand of God — or the gods of this or that. God does not come in "brands." There is no "Christian" God. There are only men and women of Christian faith who believe in God.  There is only One God, and He is everybody's God. And everybody belongs to God, for we are all One in God. Nor does God have to be believed in to Be. Nor does one have to believe in God to be part of the Divine Creation or Being, with the full array of God-given rights. Pridger

Orthodox Christians believe that Jesus was, and is, the Christ — the manifestation of God on Earth. They believe that human salvation is possible only through Christ's teachings. Pridger believes that if we could all adhere to the teachings of Jesus, salvation of mankind would, indeed, be at hand. It would be a much happier world than what we have today. Pridger

Even most atheists and agnostics believe in Truth, at least as far as they believe it to be true, though they'd rather put some physical limits on it and call it something other than God. Calling it God would make it impossible for them to be what they claim to be. Pridger

Pridger tries to keep at least six of the Ten Commandments (at least most of the time) — the ones Jesus felt were most important. Pridger

(The Commandments Reiterated by Jesus. Matthew 19:18-19)

Pridger, of course, has been guilty of numerous transgressions in his long and tempestuous life — after all, he has been a sailor and adventurer rather than a priest. The toughest commandment of all is loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. Most of us are simply too self-centered for that. Our most fundamental survival instincts dictate that self-centeredness. This is at once our strongest and weakest human attribute. Failing to love our neighbors as ourselves, as Christians (and everybody else), we at least have a passably safe fallback position in what we call the Golden Rule, paraphrased as: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Pridger

Pridger's old Pappy was an agnostic, and that's how Pridger was raised. He believed that, at their core, there is little difference between the believer and the atheist. "The atheist," he told me, "apparently believes in a self-created Universe. The believer believes in a Universe created by an apparently self-created God. An agnostic simply admits that his knowledge doesn't penetrate the mysteries of the Universe." Pridger

Pridger thought this proposition over for a number of years, and decided that being an agnostic wasn't very wise, and being a believer not at all as presumptuous and void of reason as he had once thought. Through the process of reason, Pridger became a believer.
    He concluded that whether or not anything was self-created is as imponderable and irrelevant as the famous old question, "What came first, the chicken or the egg?" Science has no answers or explanations beyond a certain point, though it is continuously pushing into ever expanding arenas of knowledge and theory and deeper and deeper into space. Even scientific minds, however, fall into the trap of attempting to assign or define limits to the Universe. As yet, this has only resulted in a mish-mass of rather vague, pointless, and often contradictory explanations as to what might be beyond, or have been before, the limits they attempt to define.
    A great and timeless void, is not explanation of anything. Nor is a single dense ball of supposedly "pre-universal" matter. And the Big Bang, as big as it must have been (and presumably continues to be), only describes something that must have happened within a much larger unknown. Not even the most complex scientific abstractions are up to the ultimate job. Even the most brilliant mind is incapable of comprehending or imagining total limitlessness and timelessness, much less rendering it into a rational scientific model or mathematical law. The iron laws of physics don't hold true at some point, and must be bent, or they must be subservient to some other higher, unknown, but natural, law. But no matter how far scientific explanations go, they will remain inadequate.
    It's as obvious, however, as the noses on our faces that some Power, far beyond our abilities of comprehension, and even our imagination, is responsible for everything we have the ability to perceive or imagine. Ten million learned volumes on physics, astronomy, and all other sciences cannot answer the ultimate questions. They can only put a few more touches of detail onto a rather small part of an incalculably vast canvas. Nor can the occult "sciences," mystics, or religious scholars do any better, for beyond our comprehensive capabilities are only vague abstractions or more specific dogmatic declarations which are, by necessity, matters of "faith" alone.
    Philosophers and sages throughout the ages have grappled with the "problem," and their volumes of intricate metaphysical discourses can be read, if not fully digested, but ultimately to little or no avail. For all their worthy and valuable endeavors at explaining the unexplainable (which have perhaps helped man better understand himself and his own limitations),  the conclusions of our greatest thinkers and metaphysicians, as verbally complex as they are, are forever as vague, and ultimately unsatisfying to the thinking man, as the simplest Bible story. Conclusions, then, are not really conclusions at all, but exercises in, and manifestations of, man's ability to think, reason, and rationalize in depth. Pridger

"Truth is not only the fulfillment of our own being; it is that by which things outside of us have an existence.
"The fulfillment of our being is moral sense. The fulfillment of the nature of things outside of us is intellect."
"Absolute truth is indestructible. Being indestructible, it is eternal. Being eternal, it is self-existent. Being self-existent, it is infinite. Being infinite, is is vast and deep. Being vast and deep, it is transcendental and intelligent." Confucius

When it comes to the Ultimate Truth, the most learned among us (for all their scientific knowledge and insight), are a lot like blind men feeling different parts of an elephant and each giving their own description of what an elephant must looks like. Only, with regard to the Ultimate Truth, Pridger has the feeling that we (meaning the most learned among us), have not yet even touched or come close to the elephant we'd like to describe. In fact, we don't know whether we're touching the elephant or various plants at the edge of the jungle — or the various appendages of a flea on a hair on the tip of the elephant's tail. We know we've got something big — but it might only be the fuzz on the hind leg of an elephant tick, or even a dung beetle far behind the beast. Some think that's the whole elephant, and others, not believing the description of the elephant by blind men, declare that no such thing as an elephant even exists. Pridger

We don't know how big our Universe is. What science today perceives and studies as the Universe, may be but a shifting grain of sand on a beach, on a large planet, which itself is merely a shifting grain of sand, etc., etc., etc. The Biblical "In the beginning..." has no no real relevance to our perception of time, beginnings, and ends. The six days that God toiled are likely six or six million epochs spanning millions, perhaps billions, of years in our reckoning of time, if there is any correlation at all. "God only knows." Pridger

Whether or not the Bible was Divinely inspired is a religious question. The Bible was written by and for men, not gods. Were those men Divinely Inspired? "God only knows" — the rest of us must either take it on faith or reject the notion. But to put things in perspective, Pridger believes that something has inspired him to write this page. Whether that something was a Divine Something, of course, is an imponderable. Pridger will have his opinion, and others will differ. Whatever the case, Pridger will accept credit in case of accolades. In the event of criticism, he'd prefer to lay responsibility for his inspiration elsewhere. Pridger

The Ultimate Answer, of course, if it could possibly be known (and be known to be true), would have to be described as "truth in its entirety" — or the Ultimate Truth. Truth is both bigger than we know, and its broadest essence is far beyond our present ability to grasp. So, in the end, given our human limitations, it all comes back to the simple definition of a word.
    What would we call that Omnipotent, Unknowable, Power, Force, or Intelligence that permeates all Creation, along with everything, and anti-thing, in every possible dimension, beyond, before, and after time, matter, and space as we know it? Many thousands of years ago, someone came up with a simple word to symbolize what could not be accounted for in human terms — "God." Whether one calls it God, Jehovah, Yahweh, the Great Spirit, or even only little old Mother Nature, is immaterial, except perhaps within the confines of specific religious groups — (there is only One), and all argument over mere words becomes superfluous semantics. Pridger

Euripides observed: "He was a wise man who originated the idea of God." Plato made a similar observation. Does this mean that God is an invention of man? No, it means that man was given the faculty to invent a word to symbolize, and summarize, all the Truth, Power, and Phenomena that he cannot hope to fathom or control — that, in fact, Is and controls All. Pridger

Whether God is "personally" interested in, and actively involved in, the affairs of men is a matter of religious faith. What would be true, of course, is that we, in all our arrogance and pettiness, are all part of the Whole, and thus, logically, of some sort of "concern" to It, however miniscule. The subject of religion, of course, is much broader than merely defining (however inadequately), God. Pridger will not get into a broader discussion of religion here. The subject tends to appear from time to time throughout these writings. Here, he merely intends to point out that he believes in God because he accepts the simple definition that "God is Truth." This is not a matter of faith, mind you — it's a firm belief — a belief in Truth. Pridger

"Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in the belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness of feel in its exercise, and the love of other which it will procure you. If you find reason to believe there is a God, a consciousness that you are acting under his eye, and that he approves you, will be a vast additional incitement." Thomas Jefferson, to his nephew, Peter Carr, August 10, 1787

While he believes in Truth, Pridger admits he doesn't know very much of it. Truth encompasses a lot of territory (in fact it takes in all that is collectively known by man, all that is knowable but as yet unknown to him, as well as All that is unknowable and light-years beyond his reach), and Pridger's mind is very, very, small. Pridger

Whether or not God takes a "personal" interest in our lives, or answers our specific prayers, is also a matter of religious teaching and faith. Pridger usually takes no specific position on such matters, allowing that they are the private affairs of the faithful, most of whom he wishes well and supports in their various respective faiths, be they Christian, Jewish, Moslem, or other. His feelings are the same toward the faithless and the heathen — for men of good will are not confined to the religious alone.
    However, it is perfectly reasonable to deduce that everything that we are, and everything we have, is what we might properly refer to as a gift from, or of, God. Unless you happen to have been born into abject misery, and have continued to lead a miserable existence, you undoubtedly enjoy an abundance of what believers call God's gifts. Pridger certainly does, as do most people to varying degrees — including those who hold that such bounty as they have are all merely pleasant accidents of nature, or are otherwise strictly attributable to their own hard work. These gifts, among other things, include what our nation's founders referred to as "unalienable rights," including (but certainly not confined to), "the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This is most significant, for only in our form of government (as it was initiated with the Declaration of Independence), was it allowed that we naturally possess such rights as Divine gifts of the Creator. Pridger

And this is the whole point of the foregoing passages. That we, as Americans, have a special relationship with God. This is not an arrogant statement, but a very humble one. It doesn't mean we have any special inside track to God, it merely acknowledges we recognize God above us — as individuals and as a nation. The very legitimacy of our government hangs on this simple acknowledgement of fact. To deny it is to place government in the roll our founders reserved to God alone.
    I know it's tough for you independent minded, and otherwise loyal Americans, who would rather say "nature" or "happenstance" than "God." Though it may be difficult for many to swallow, without God, our nation, and its government cannot be more than a mere fraud — as economically and militarily great and powerful as it may otherwise be. That, in a nutshell, is why all Americans, Christian, Jew, Moslem, or other, should heartily declare and reaffirm that this is "One Nation Under God." Pridger

18 December, 2003

PART II

Ironically, at the very forefront of the push to divorce America from it's "Christian identity" and any official acknowledgement of God are our friends the Jews, who (to most Christians), are acknowledged to be God's chosen people. Though the Jews are one of the smallest religious or ethnic minorities in America, their influence far exceeds their numbers. In fact, it sometimes seems their influence exceeds that of the majority.
    Not only do practicing Jews worship the same God as Christians (Judaism, being the direct forerunner of Christianity), they have established a theocracy of their own in the state of Israel. What's more, Israel is the only "secular" state in recorded history which is also a theocracy based exclusively on religious identity. And equally peculiar is the fact that the founder of political Zionism, and most its subsequent leadership, as well as most the founders and subsequent leaders of the Jewish state itself, were non-practicing "secular" Jews with "progressive," secular humanist views. Despite these facts, all Zionist claim to a homeland in Palestine is based solely upon alleged promises made by God to the Jewish people in the scriptures of the Old Testament. Of course, pragmatic Zionists have a whole arsenal of persuasive and pervasive "legal" and political justifications for the Jewish state besides that of simply referencing holy scriptures that few of them actually believe in. But, in the end, it all goes back to the Bible.
    The establishment of the state of Israel, conceived and intended to permanently solve the problems disbursed Jews had faced in their many host nations, actually expanded and multiplied their problems while creating many more problems for many others. This, of course, has become increasingly evident since 1948, and no end is in sight despite Bush's "Roadmap for Peace." As time goes on, more and more Americans will realize that our wars with Iraq are actually proxy wars, with ourselves acting as the proxy for Israeli security interests (dubbed, for domestic propaganda purposes, as American national interests and an unavoidable extension of the war on terror). Of course, a lot more is a stake than Israeli security. Gaining firm control of the oil resources in the Persian Gulf area constitutes a very attractive booby prize — and one that would be officially admitted before the real purposes of the conflict would be acknowledged.
    Just as most white men (and women), continue to very secretly believe they are members of a superior race, most Jews (including the secular ones), quietly continue to believe themselves to be God's chosen people with a special mission on earth. At the very least they believe they have some sort of special role, born of past persecution, to serve as the "conscience" of mankind. While acting as the conscience of mankind as a whole, almost all (excepting, ironically, some ultra-Orthodox Jews) are devoted to the defense of the State of Israel.
    Those who would be shocked to think that most white people consider themselves superior to black people, would probably also be shocked to learn that most black people consider themselves superior to white people. I'd personally be shocked and disappointed to learn that the Massai and Zulu tribesmen don't reckon themselves superior to not only white people, but all other African tribes and races. But I digress from the subject.
    Jews, of course, are among our most valuable citizens. They excel in every major profession and commercial endeavor, and their influence shows in the fact that they have become the most powerful and politically influential faction in America. This is at once their great legacy and perennial curse, for it not only continues to set them apart, but makes them the continuing object of jealousy, resentment, and suspicion.
    Given the facts of the history of the founding of this nation, based in Christian traditions and beholden to the "Jewish" God (which of course is the One and Only God), and further upon the fact that Jewish persecution has never been a serious problem to Jews in America, one would think that American Jews would be pleased to have America acknowledged as a "nation under God," if not actually a "Christian nation." The Ten Commandments, for example, are actually more Jewish than Christian, for they were the "old" Judaic Law handed down to Moses in pre-Christian era. One would think Jews would be pleased to have them on display throughout the nation as evidence of the Judaic roots of our legal system. But, lamentably, this is not the case.
    The Jews (and not without justification), continue to fear virulent anti-Semitism — even in America. They fear anti-Semitism, most particularly, in a "Christian America," because they continue to associate the persecution of Jews almost exclusively with Christians. Ironically Judaism and Islam have enjoyed historically better relations than Judaism and Christianity. Jewish minorities coexisted in relative harmony with Moslems in most Arab countries since Biblical times — right up until the advent of the state of Israel. To Jews, all institutionalized anti-Semitism throughout Christian history has always been a manifestation of Christian religious oppression of non-Christians. In spite of the currently ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, Jews still possess the deep seeded feeling that Christianity is the greater enemy. Of utmost importance, in terms of relatively recent history, they view Hitler and the Nazi Holocaust as a uniquely "Christian" phenomenon, both by commission and omission. Thus, they feel that if the wall between church and state in America can be built so high and so thick that all Americans can become comfortable with the notion that this is a Godless nation, that latent anti-Semitism in America would be vanquished. In this, I believe they are making a very serious mistake.
    Anti-Semitism, at its root, is not a Christian phenomenon — any more than the Mafia, or war itself, have been Christian phenomenon (though broad associations are very easy to make). Alleged Christians and so-called Christian states, of course, have been guilty of persecuting Jews, but not because they were Christian. Exactly the opposite was true. The Holy Roman Empire, and its successor states, of course, persecuted Jews, but in every case these were demonstrably non-Christians, doing very un-Christian things, all in the name Christ and the Church. While Germany was (and is) a "Christian" nation by historic association, Hitler and his Nazi regime certainly were not Christian, in fact they were about as far from being Christian as could be imagined.
    In the establishment of the United States, the very author of the Declaration of Independence swore upon the altar of God, eternal war against tyranny over the minds of men. That meant the very sort of tyranny over the minds of men that all former and existing "Christian" theocracies had exerted, and which had made atrocities in the name of Church and Christ all too common throughout Christian history. The founders sought to instill a "pure" form of Christianity, wherein the teachings of Jesus would informally form the bases of the national character. It was, after all, the founder of the Christian religion who first said (in a western religious context), that all men are equal under God, and that men should not only love their friends and neighbors as themselves, but their enemies as well. Salvation (of man), through universal love, forgiveness, tolerance, and compassion were the essence of his message. Yet the Jews insist that any form of official endorsement or acknowledgement of the Christian message by the United States government, or any subdivision thereof, must be crushed in order for them to feel safe.
    If there were ever any truly Godless nations in this world in recent times, it was Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia — and between them the death-toll staggers to imagination. This is not to let the United States and Great Britain off the hook, by any means. Neither of them have ever fulfilled a Christian mission in their engineering and prosecution of any war. Both were allied with Soviet Russia in the Second World War, and both contributed significantly to the death and suffering during that tragic conflict, of which the Jewish Holocaust "happens to be" the most remembered part.
    The specter and memory of the German Jewish Holocaust, and the alleged belief (and fear), that "it could happen again" (here in America), is the rationale for the Jew's desire to "make America a Godless nation." But, if America becomes a Godless nation (as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were), they will indeed have much to fear. One could make all sorts of Biblical analogies with regard to this. Speaking of the American people alone, however, we seem to be like the Children of Israel when they (unsatisfied with God's rule), clamored for a king to rule over them, as "other tribes and nations" were ruled.
    Because America was, at its core, much more of a Christian nation than any that had ever existed before, Jewish immigration to American shores was never cause for national alarm (though it has never been actively encouraged), and Jews have never been persecuted in America as in almost every nation of eastern and western Europe. That's not to say there hasn't been a considerable amount of anti-Jewish bias among the American population based on religious considerations. After all, most orthodox Christians do believe that Jew's rejected the true Christ. There has also been a considerable amount of blatant discrimination against Jews in America. Broadly speaking, this bias and discrimination has been cultural at root. But without going into further detail, by in large, America in general (and most particularly the large metropolitan areas to which Jews gravitated by choice), has proven to be a most congenial host for the Jewish community. This, largely due to the broad religious tolerance engendered by the nation at its very founding.
    Of course the term anti-Semitism itself has been rendered such broad meaning that one has to pause to examine how it is applied. What Jews really fear is virulent anti-Semitism born of fear and hatred. But Jews also label relatively harmless bias or criticism as dangerous latent anti-Semitism — to the extent that open discussion between reasonable groups becomes almost impossible without charges of anti-Semitism. Jews, of course, have become masters of "critical theory," and believe that the best defense in debate is a swift, debilitating, offense — to stifle the debate as quickly as possible, ridiculing or discrediting those who raise impertinent issues or questions. This has worked to a large degree in our society, but at a cost (as mentioned above), of which many perceptive Jews are certainly becoming aware. Stifling debate can never lead to understanding.
    The Jews are correct in their assessment that there is a continuing anti-Semitic undercurrent in America today. It has always been there and is unavoidable. Only a very small portion of it, however, is of the truly dangerous variety. In fact most Americans are very sympathetic to Jews and Israel, with fundamentalist Christians even more sympathetic than the mainstream. But the virulent segment is growing (just as Jews fear), largely because of the measures Jews themselves are taking to "nip it in the bud" — in part, by pushing for the official de-Christianization of the nation. The fact that the Jewish-American community apparently has the power to accomplish this (in spite of being a miniscule minority), is proof enough to many that ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government), in America and the world, really does exist.
    Although the ACLU is not an official Jewish organization, it certainly has plenty of Jewish representation within its ranks, and is actively supported by Jewish individuals and organizations to the extent that it can be pretty safely assumed that the ACLU agenda is essentially identical to the Jewish agenda, most especially in the matter of the separation of church and state.
    The ACLU has taken on many good and worthy causes. Presently it's neck deep in the fight against the such assaults on civil liberties as the US Patriot Act, and various other negative fallout from the war on terror. Pridger supports all efforts to stop or roll back our government's continuing knee-jerk lurch into police-state authoritarianism. But Pridger does not support the ACLU in its quest to render America an officially Godless nation with absolutely no religious identity. If the state does not acknowledge a higher Authority, it becomes the ultimate authority and the road toward the police state will be wide open to it.

What follows are some Pridger quotes that bear on the subject.

CHRISTMAS CHEER (but Without Christ)
Is still Politically Correct

Even the ACLU defends Christmas and Santa Claus — as long as no there are not "religious" connotations disclosed on public property. Santa and Christmas decorations are okay on the courthouse lawn, but not a nativity scene. The truth of the matter is that the Christmas holiday season is so profitable to the "merchant class" that even the ADL strongly supports its commercial value. Pridger

The ACLU can overlook the fact that Santa Claus (St. Nicholas), was a Catholic Saint, as long as he sticks to promoting holiday retail sales without letting his crucifix show. Pridger

The ACLU also is pleased to announce that our public school children may continue to sing Christmas carols on school property — so long as they aren't "religious" in nature. They can sing Frosty the Snowman, Santa Clause in Coming to Town, and Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, etc., but not Silent Night! Heaven forbid that anything with "holy" connotations rear it hoary head on school property! Pridger

Ironically, a large amount of profits made by many of the nation's leading merchants during the Christmas holiday season (in honor of the birth of Christ), go toward the active "official" de-Christianization of the nation. Pridger

"American Jewry does not challenge the observance of Christmas as an official holiday — no doubt because Christmas has become so commercialized — from which Jews profit in no small measure — that its religious character can be overlooked."

"...Jews are the only non-Christian religious group of significance in America... Jewish organizations spend a great deal of energy and money in combating anything apt to remove even one brick from the wall that separates state from church — or, worse, make America appear to be a Christian country.
    "Jews will sue to have a cross removed from a Marine Corps base or a Nativity scene from a public square (and), for the right of an air force psychologist to wear a yarmulke...
    "America may be a country the majority of whose population professes Christianity, but it is not a Christian country. Jewish organizations are eager to have this distinction extablished and enshrined in legal opinion as clearly, and as frequently, as possible..." Moshe Leshem, Israel Alone, How the Jewish State Lost its Way and How it Can Find it Again.

What chance does the majority have against the combined forces of organized Jewry, a largely agnostic legal profession which dominates the federal court system, and shyster politicians easily manipulated through campaign contributions? Pridger

Pridger is no apologist for the Jews, but he openly admires them and their leaders who today outsmart and outmaneuver the majority at every turn. If only our Gentile leaders were half as smart! Pridger

The Jews have taken their most recent and acute persecution in the West (the Holocaust), and turned it into their most coveted and potent political asset. They successfully exploit it as the most powerful political propaganda weapon in the world today. With it (what Orthodox Jews themselves believe to be the results of Balaam's Curse), they work their will against the rest of us. Pridger

"The memory of the Holocaust naturally reinforces Jewish distrust of and suspiciousness of gentiles. In this respect, the relentless preservation of the Holocaust memories is obviously counterproductive — unless, that is, the Jews, and Israel, want to persevere in the 'aloneness' that has in the past caused rivers of Jewish blood and tears to flow... The Holocaust had become a national treasure, a valuable legacy that was (and is) constantly evoked to remind the gentiles of their indifference or, worse, their complicity in the destruction of European Jewry... When Jews speak of gentiles, they think of white Christians.) At the same time, the perpetuation of Holocaust memories served as a warning that the Jews would never again passively endure any such calamity, a bark that has now a nuclear bite...
    "...Orthodox theology teaches that the Holocaust was God's punishment for the sins of Israel. ...
    "The majority of Holocaustodians, however, see the Holocaust as an exclusively Jewish concern. They insist on a Jewish monopoly on suffering. The purpose behind this is twofold: to prod gentile consciences in order to bend them to Jewish purposes and, perhaps more important, to strengthen the Jew' sense of apartness." Moshe Leshem, Israel Alone, How the Jewish State Lost its Way and How it Can Find it Again.

In theory, the majority would have something to say as to whether or not this is a nation "under God." But in practice the majority is not really a Christian majority. Unfortunately, the majority of the so-called Christian vote is cast by hypocrites or absconders. Pridger

A Christian absconder is one who, in spite of his religious faith, has come to agree with the ACLU, that the only path to religious freedom and tolerance is through total intolerance of religious expression in the public arena. They believe that the wall separating church and state was built ten foot thick and ten miles high by the nation's founders as soon as the Declaration of Independence was signed. Pridger

The "public arena," to the ACLU, is comprised of any and every scrap of property owned by any branch of government, period. This includes all federal, state, and local government buildings, and the real estate they occupy. It includes all military installations, bases, ships, reservations, and missile ranges. It includes all official and unofficial organizations and gathering on such property. I suppose it also includes federal, state, and local forest and park lands, and probably all range and wet-lands administered by various federal and state bureaus. In the finally analysis (given a little more time), it would probably also take in all publicly supported or subsidized businesses, including churches, mosques, and farmlands. Pridger

Just why the Congressional Chaplain, and all military chaplains, have not yet been mustered out of service at the behest of the ACLU is puzzling. I wonder if they still have churches on military bases? Surly they are illegal by now — most likely replaced video arcades or casinos. Pridger

Pridger isn't anti-Semitic, or anti-Jewish. He's no more anti-Jewish than he is anti-Baptist, anti-Buddhist, anti-Hindu, anti-Moslem, or anti-Unitarian. And it's a good thing, because being anti-Semitic is tantamount to a hate crime in this country. The only thing worse would be failing to file federal income tax returns. He only laments that organized Jewry in America is so openly and powerfully anti-Christian. They would (and will, with the ACLU firmly in its corner), finalize America's divorce from the corrosive influences of the Christianity as part of the national identity, not to mention the Almighty Himself. Yet almost all American Jews openly support the right of the nation of Israel to be a Jewish state. That's different — that's their state. Pridger

Not only is Israel "their" state, but the United States is their country also. American Jews are perfectly happy right where they are. The only thing they require of the rest of us is that we allow the ACLU to interpret the Constitution for us. Pridger

According to Moshe Leshem, "The percentage of Jews who go to the polls at election time is double the overall figure — which, in terms of election mathematics, means that every Jewish vote carries double the relative weight... No less important than votes... is the clout Jews wield as a result of their ability to raise and deliver massive campaign contributions... and U.S. Jewry makes full, open, and efficient use of this instrument for making friends with and of politicians." (The alternate to friendship for all politicians, is defeat at the next election.) All in all, I guess we should feel very thankful that they still allow us to have Christmas as an official national holiday. Pridger

Of course, public school children no long have Christmas or Easter vacations. They have a year end and spring break. Pridger

The only reason the ACLU has not mandated that the word Christmas be abbreviated as Xmas, is that the "X" could still be construed as a Christian religious symbol. "Mas" might also be construed to mean mass. Pridger

A couple of years ago, when the posting of the Ten Commandments in school was a heated local issue, a friend expressed her agreement with the ACLU position. She told me she didn't want her child exposed to any Christian message at school. The ACLU won, of course, and the the Commandments came down at that school. Ironically, that friend soon came to realize that in addition to not being exposed to the Ten Commandments at school, her child wasn't being exposed to much education there either. So she took her child out of public school and sent her to a private parochial school. There, not only were the Ten Commandments prominently displayed, but the Bible itself was actually in evidence, and prayers were recited. She allowed that it was a small price to pay for a quality education for her child. Pridger

One nation under God? Not any more — E Pluribus Unum (from many one), no longer applies. We have become a nation divided as no nation has ever become before. Pridger

We are a nation of Jews, African-Americans, Latin-Americans, secular humanists, homosexuals, feminists, and other minorities, organized and effectively united against the receding white Christian majority. Pridger

The ultimate divide and conquer ploy, was when women were designated as a specially protected minority. That not only weakened the majority, but all numerically large minorities. Pridger

Ironically, it was the smallest minority of all that both organized, and continues to sponsor, our march away from any semblance of national unity of purpose. Pridger

Today, about the only thing that unites Americans is a universal desire to maintain our national level of material affluence. As long as Americans can remain overfed, sufficiently entertained, and as long as Social Security and other entitlement checks continue to flow (and we remain free from overt military invasion), some sort of national stability will be maintained. Pridger

Ironically, globalism (the agenda of our future, etched in stone by our mis-representatives in Washington), is about undermining that last vestige of American of universal unity of thought and purpose — broad-based American affluence and prosperity. National political and economic independence have already been thoroughly compromised. Pridger

The Constitution is already a dead document as the truly binding "law of the land." This happened long before it became politically feasible for federal judges to void the Declaration of Independence by declaring that it was based in fraudulent claims of Divine charter and God-given "natural rights" of man. Pridger

PRIDGER'S CHURCH

Pridger is the only official member of his own church denomination. It is called the "Church of the Universal Living Truth" (CULT). It is a "Christian" church (though some Christians would call it a cult), but its canon is Universal, drawing upon the wisdom of men of every age and religious persuasion. Pridger

Return to Pridger's Index of Politically Incorrect Studies