God Bless Texas

I journeyed to our County Courthouse to renew the registration sticker for my truck.  Yes, I live in Texas and yes, I drive a truck.  The clerk was ever so polite and in just a few minutes I left with a new registration sticker-enclosed envelope.  Our county Tax Assessor/Collector is a new person, replacing a wonderful lady who held the post for years and years.  Evidently our new gal wants to make an impression, so the envelope that held my sticker looked very different from the previous county-provided envelopes.  Emblazoned in large print across the left side of the envelope was the phrase, “God Bless Texas.”

And for a minute I am speechless.  Is this still America?  Do we still believe the government, any government, should not promote religion?  Do we still believe it is unconstitutional to spend tax payer money promoting religion?  Is that our America?  Or have we become a land where the rule is think like me, or you are wrong, and I can ram my thoughts down your throat using your tax own dollars?

Suppose the envelope said, “Allah Bless Texas”?  Or Ra or Zeus or Baal?  Would people who believe in God be horrified?  Yes.  Suppose the envelope said, “Atheists for Texas”?  In other words, this kind of democratic blasphemy only happens where the majority are so ensconced they cannot even picture a minority point of view.  Or worse, they can picture a minority point of view but believe the minority to be “wrong” so they proceed anyway. 

And if one believes there is a god and that he or she can bless a state, why not include the entire nation?  Does God recognize state boundary lines?  Why not request a blessing for the planet?  Why not check in with the Harvey/Irma/Nate victims and see if they feel blessed, or the children who just lost insurance, or the folks who will die today from gunshots, or all the folks now sleeping under a bridge, or the children dying in the cancer ward, or the children who will be abducted this year and sold as sex slaves, or the folks who are dirt poor while working two jobs.  They are not going to feel blessed.  If such a prayer, and it is a prayer, only works for some and not for all, should we print it?  So, if god does not answer such a requests, should we print it, or does it become some sort of false promotion? 

There are profound reasons for separating church and state.  No secular government should ever endorse one religion over another, or religion over no religion.  A person’s most intrinsic right should be the right to believe as he or she chooses.  For the state to ever indicate there is a good choice in the belief arena is to indicate all other choices are bad choices.  And the state has absolutely no right to imply that.

Our biggest beef with the Muslim community in the Mid-East is that they want Sharia law to govern the state.  We see that as blasphemy while at the same time many promote making Christian law the law of the state here in the US.  There is no difference in this sort of blasphemy, this sort of state intrusion into our precious, sacred internal belief structures.

I do not think Monica did this with mal-intent.  I think she did it out of ignorance of the fact that not all in the US or even Jackson County are God-believing people, or even believe in the same God she professes.  I think for equity we also need envelopes that say Allah bless Texas, Buddha bless Texas, Atheists bless Texas and Zeus bless Texas.  If that strikes horror in the minds of some then you know how I felt when I read the current envelope.

And then I pass the electronic sign outside our school district offices and read, “Prayers for victims of….”  And once again I am thrilled to know my tax dollars are promoting someone else’s religious beliefs.