GOD AND GOVERNMENT IV

Carved in stone:

In no other place in the United States are there so many, and such varied official evidences of deep and abiding faith in God on the part of Governments as there are in Washington.

In a small room in the Capitol, set aside by the 83rd Congress, the focal point is a stained glass window showing George Washington kneeling in prayer.

Above are the words, "This Nation Under God"
Behind him is etched these words from Psalm 16:1: "Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust."

The phrase, "In God We Trust" appears opposite the President of the Senate.
The same phrase, in large words inscribed in the marble; backdrops the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Above the head of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are the Ten Commandments, and included among the great lawgivers sculped in marble on the east front is Moses.

Engraved on the metal cap atop the Washington Monument are the words: "Praise be to God", and lining the walls of the stairwell are such biblical phrases as "Search the Scriptures", "Holiness to the Lord", and "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it".

Numerous quotations from Scripture can be found within the walls of the Library of Congress. Among them: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork" Psalm 19:1

As one gazes up at the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial, it seems as though the sculptor who chiseled the features of this great man all but seems to make Lincoln speak his own words which are inscribed into the wall around him. "...that this nation. under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

In another place on the north wall, his Second Inaugural Address alludes to "God", the "Bible", "providence", "the Almighty," and "divine attributes."

It then continues: "As was said 3000 years ago, so it still must be said. 'The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' "

And on the south banks of Washington's Tidal Basin, Thomas Jefferson still speaks: "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we remove a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?"

It has been said that these words of Jefferson should be seen as a forceful and explicit warning that to remove God from this country will destroy it

What say you?