First up from the [tag]God[/tag] machine this week is a story from good ol’ [tag]Florida[/tag]. In the Sunshine State, the words “[tag]In God We Trust[/tag]” have appeared on the state seal since 1868, but according to state legislation signed into law this week by Gov. [tag]Jeb Bush[/tag] (R), that wasn’t good enough. The phrase needed to be Florida’s official motto.
The [tag]motto[/tag] bill resulted from a school project by two fourth grade pupils who discovered there was no state law certifying “In God We Trust.” They approached Rep. Greg Evers, R-Baker, who introduced the bill.
“First and foremost this [tag]honors the Almighty[/tag],” Evers said in a statement issued by his office.
And in a country that pretends to honor the separation of church and state, having laws that use the power of the state to “honor the Almighty” makes perfect sense, right?
If memory serves, the Supreme Court came up with a test a few decades ago called the “Lemon test,” which said, among other things, that laws had to have a “secular purpose” in order to be consistent with the First Amendment. With this in mind, isn’t Greg Evers effectively admitting that his bill is legally problematic?
And speaking of people with problems, the LA Times had a very interesting story this week on religious activists, around the world, who are hoping to hasten the arrival of the end of the world. Seriously.
For thousands of years, prophets have predicted the [tag]end of the world[/tag]. Today, various religious groups, using the latest technology, are trying to hasten it.
Their endgame is to speed the promised arrival of a messiah. For some Christians this means laying the groundwork for Armageddon.
With that goal in mind, mega-church pastors recently met in Inglewood to polish strategies for using global communications and aircraft to transport missionaries to fulfill the [tag]Great Commission[/tag]: to make every person on Earth aware of Jesus’ message. Doing so, they believe, will bring about the end, perhaps within two decades.
It’s not just Christians. In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, when he was mayor of Tehran, spent millions to help welcome the return of a Muslim messiah known as the Mahdi. In Jerusalem, some Jewish groups hope to rebuild a temple that would, they believe, clear the path for their own messiah.
In Mississippi, my personal favorite is revivalist preacher and cattle rancher Clyde Lott, who is trying to raise a unique herd of red heifers. As the LAT noted, Lott is trying to “satisfy an obscure injunction in the Book of Numbers: the sacrifice of a blemish-free red heifer for purification rituals needed to pave the way for the messiah.”
In case you’re wondering, none of the cows qualify, but Lott’s going to keep trying.