The kind of e'mail links I get from relatives

"In God We Still Trust", by Diamond Rio.

My response, for what it's worth:

I'll agree that the song is tuneful and harmonious, but as you probably know, I find the idea of a Christian theocracy to be no more attractive than the idea of a Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Mormon, or any other kind of religious theocracy. It's anti-American ("Congress shall make no law....") as well as anti-Christian ("Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars, and unto God those things that are God's...")

The fact that there IS separation between religion and politics in America is the only thing that has prevented Christianity in this county from getting any more beslimed by sleazy politicians than it has, kept religious belief genuine and personal instead of merely a social/political obligation, and quite possibly the only thing that has prevented us from having the kind of sadistic religious wars and inquisitions that plagued Europe in the middle ages and plague the Middle East today.

"There is no separation (between church and state)" is a sentiment more typical of, say, the Ayatollah Khomeini, or Osama bin Laden, than of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson! Falsely suggesting, through the use of inflammatory images of someone burning an American flag, that anyone who opposes Christian theocracy is anti-American is a propaganda ploy worthy of Joseph Goebbels. And displaying an image of the Constitution, with its famous bill of rights prohibiting religious favoritism, while implying that theocracy is "what this country's all about", is either comically clueless or deliberately deceitful.

So. Pretty song, but ugly sentiment.

Sometimes I wonder whether it's worth talking back to the marching sheep who keep bleating out "Four legs good two legs bad."