Where's God?

(image found at http://bit.ly/lZ7quK)

Awhile back I wrote a posting about how I came to love golf. This weekend was the U.S. Open. I didn't get to see it all, but I did watch Rory McIlroy win and pay tribute to his parents.

During the broadcast, NBC, who had the television rights to the Saturday and Sunday rounds, did one of their little feel-good segments. The piece cut back and forth between a classroom of children reciting The Pledge of Allegiance, patriotic shots of the flag and military and artistic shots of the golf course and well-known golf moments. It was a nice piece. Except for one thing. During The Pledge of Allegiance, they cut out the words "under God." They were tricky about it, too. They would recite a line of The Pledge of Allegiance, then cut away briefly with a patriotic shot, then back to the classroom. If you weren't paying close attention, you'd have missed it.

NBC was deluged with complaints and has since issued an apology.

Not long ago, President Obama left out the words "their creator" from the preamble to the constitution. Obama's people quickly attempted damage control and made a statement that President Obama was ad-libbing that part and it was unintentional. He really believes in the constitution as it is written.

Maybe you remember when the new gold dollars came out. There was a series of emails and articles upset that "In God We Trust" had been left off the coin. We were quickly informed that it was still on the coins--it was just inscribed around the edge of the coins. That's nice, I suppose, but you're likely not to see it there and even if you do, it's pretty hard to read unless you're looking at an enlarged picture like the one above.

Little by little, God is being removed from our culture. NBC apologized, Obama's people apologized (sort of) and the makers of the coin managed to make the reference to Him almost indistinguishable.

I'm not typically a conspiracy theorist, but I can't help but think that these things aren't accidents. I think there are some pretty cunning people behind these decisions and they're hoping they can sneak it past us. The more they sneak it past us, the more we get used to it not being there. It's a slippery slope.

AND NOW A CONFESSION:

I was helping my girls pack for girl's camp and glanced up at the television during NBC's U.S. Open piece. I saw images of the flag, heard the pledge, felt sad that Payne Stewart died such a strange and untimely death. But I didn't realize the words "under God" were missing until I saw a news story with NBC's apology. The apology came because Twitter and Facebook and NBC's message boards were instantly deluged with complaints.

And I hadn't noticed. I wish I would have. I wish I'd have been one of those registering my unhappiness at the beginning. I'm glad there were some paying closer attention than I was.

And I think that's what we have to do. We have to point these things out. We have to refuse to allow those that are trying to sneak this by us to be successful. We have to pay closer attention. I have to pay closer attention.

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