And we can call it “G-BAD” for short

Some folks have gotten together to try to get Congress to declare September 11th as “God Bless America Day“.

Where do I start …?

1. We already have a day of Thanksgiving. We already have a day to celebrate War Dead. I don’t think we need an extra holiday (a week after Labor Day) to cover either of those purposes.
2. “On God Bless America Day we will remember all victims of terrorism. And we will ask God to protect us from future acts of terrorism, too.” Do you think God might mind if we remember acts of terrorism outside of the US, or directed at folks other than Americans? Why not “God Bless the World Day”? Or even “Smash Terrorism Day”?

   Heck, maybe we could have a special holiday when we celebrate “Peace on Earth, Good Will toward Men” …

   Naaaaah.

3. The writers have a real problem with calling 11 September 2001 “Nine-One-One” or “Nine-Eleven.” It’s not exactly clear why, except that it doesn’t mention GOD in it.

4. The writers go off on a mini-rant about all those Godless Atheists who will no doubt disagree with a formal government-recognized national day of prayer. Or another one. I guess that makes me a Godless Atheist, then.

   “To these people we say, ‘Lighten UP!'” Though, of course, they could use with a bit of lightening, too, since a paragraph or two later they add, “And we are tired of the tail wagging the dog. The prayer at the graduation might offend someone. That’s just too bad! NOT having the prayer offends US!”

5. “Yes, we have been attacked. But with a new resolve, and with God’s help, we will rise up together and defeat terrorism. We will bring all terrorists to justice and we will make America a safe place to live peaceful lives.” Yeah. Like it’s always been.

   Of course, we’re still just talking about America. The rest of the planet can go hang, as long as we live in God-blessed peace and safety.

6. “And we need to get America back on the right path. It’s time to get back to an old-fashioned America. Like our grandparents had.” Yeah! Depression! Poorhouses! Racial bigotry and segregation! Women barefoot and baking babies! Internment camps for those wily-lookin’ Japs! Special parts of town for those Darkies and Spics and … them funny-talkin’ folk over there! No Papists in the White House! No Jews in the country club! No Nancy-boys anywhere! That’s what we need! That’s what made this country great! That’s what God Bless America Day will do for us!

   Yeesh.

7. “We see hundreds of signs and bumper stickers that say ‘God Bless America.’ Isn’t it time for America itself to ask God to bless America?” Isn’t that what all those signs and bumper stickers are? Is there a reason we have to all do it in lock-step? Is that the sort of prayer God really wants?

   Well, if you read the About page, that’s what they really do think God wants. Their “secondary” (I read it as primary) purpose is to roll back what they call “Freedom from Religion” to the Good Old Days of “Freedom to be Mainline Protestant Christian.” They see no difference between personal expression of religion and government-sponsored expressions of religion (though I’ll bet they would if the government tried to dictate those expressions as something other than what they want).

G-BAD is a bad idea. September 11th will be remembered for some time, though at length it will fade from the national memory the way Remember the Maine Day, the Firing on Fort Sumter, and the date of the Boston Massacre have, and as I expect Pearl Harbor Day will over the next few decades. That’s the natural way of things. Hijacking that date to make a religious point (and a jingoistic one at that) doesn’t seem to do justice to the folks who died at the Pentagon, at the World Trade Center, or in a field in Pennsylvania.

For some other commentary, see here, and for an alternative, see here.

(Via Adam)