American government too entwined in religion to break free

Spectrum, by Harry Yost

Several weeks ago, a reader wrote an opinion piece for the Frontiersman in which his theme was "Freedom from Religion." Mainly, he didn't want to be "forced" to recite the words "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. He contended, (and so do some others), this was a violation of his First Amendment rights, He is not legally required to even recite the Pledge, but that seems to be beside the point. As this is written, there is a case before the Supreme Court with the same contention. And for those interested, there is an organization in another state also called "Freedom From Religion" which has at least one vociferous adherent.

Perhaps these "freedom from" folks haven't thought the idea completely through. If we followed this theme to its illogical conclusion, it would affect every labor union in the nation, not to mention all the school kids and most businesses. Simply, it would do away with all holidays. Holiday is a contraction of the words "holy day." Can't have that, it's religious! Oh, we could just call these days "vacation days," or "days off" and not have to lose them. Some school districts have taken to calling the Christmas holiday the mid-winter holiday, or winter solstice vacation to avoid "religious" connotations. Either way, you are in trouble.

Let's look at the calendar to see just what would be lost. January 1, New Years Day. That's not religious? Well, our calendar is based on the Julian calendar, which was put into practice by Julius Caesar. Julius may not have been "religious," (other than wanting to be worshipped himself), but he decreed the days of the weeks and the months of the year be named after pagan gods and goddesses. Oops, there's that "religion" thing again.

The calendar we now use is based on the Julian, but was revamped to more accurately keep time with the sun at the order of Pope Gregory IX, if I remember correctly, (more religion) and was adopted by Great Britain in 1750. They simply lost eleven days, by decree of the king -- a "Defender of the Faith."

To have freedom from religion we would have to not celebrate New Years, or perhaps not even use the calendar at all. Not to worry. The U.N. has a calendar they want everyone to use. Denoting, of course, the holidays everyone in the world will celebrate, by order of the world government.

Then there's Valentine's day. This was actually to commemorate the life of St. Valentine, (religion again), the patron saint of lovers. Doing away with that would anger a lot of merchants, not to mention young lovers.

We can skip all the religious days, clear into July when we celebrate the birth of our nation. By golly, there's nothing religious about that! Well, the Fourth of July was designated to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which states, among other things, "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 …" If only they hadn't put God into it!

We could say that Labor Day and Veterans Day aren't religious, except they are on days in months named after pagan gods and goddesses. Thanksgiving Day goes without saying. A day of thanks to God has been designated every fall by every president of the United States since there have been presidents. Talk about crossing the line between church and state!

This brings us to Christmas. It is claimed the Christian church decided to celebrate the birth of Christ during the winter solstice to usurp a pagan holiday. The pagans were celebrating the return of the sun at that time. In other words, they were worshipping the sun god. The last time I checked, sun worship was defined as a religion too.

One of the wonderful things about the United States is we are free to worship or not worship as we please. The government cannot impose any religion on us. Neither can we impose any religion (or lack thereof) on each other. A major problem in Iraq is one leader of a religion is trying to impose his beliefs on everyone else, including the United States.

Harry Yost is a Palmer resident.