Laus Deos ~ The Clumsy Debate

Nothing sticky about this but The Clumsy Debate.

Separation of Church and State, so admired by those who would erase all acknowledgement, vision, or mention of God from public mind, view, or ears, now tortures the language of the First Amendment -- that says simply and straighforwardly that the government may not establish religion -- to mean government shall conspire in the erasure of all artifacts of faith.

In the meanwhile, high above any other structure in Washington, DC, the nation's capital city, appear words that seem to read "In praise of God." They appear atop the Washington Monument, about which two facts cry out to be acknowledged, seen, heard, and kept in mind as The Clumsy Debate moves forward: that under law no other structure in DC may exceed that of the Washington Monument, and that the monument was fulfilled in ceremony as early as 1848.

Praise God, God the Praiseworthy, In Praise of God -- take your pick. It seems that, so few years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, after the Revolutionary War, after the Great Constituitonal Debate that led to the drafting of what was soon to become the Constitution of the United States, after the compromises that were struck and enshrined in the Bill of rights, the citizen at large had few doubts whether the First Amendment was in any manner an impediment to acknowledgement, vision, or mention of God.

They recalled what Washington had believed, and what he had said was requisite to a successful and long-lived founding of a nation: active belief in and praise of God. Thus appears "Laus Deos" atop the Washington Monument.