Submitted by Ben, Dec 9, 2007 12:04

Except that's just impossible if you take that literally. The moral orientation of a man are much tied to the morality of the time and place where he was raised and the Constitution is men-made.

And many of the men involved were not Christians, but Deists. It is very much possible - values and morals can and do exist without religious sources.

While the Constitution does not explicitly favour any religion, it is based on a superset of Christian values

Not if you ask the generation who wrote it, as they made their position clear in 1796. They could not make it any clearer.

So it's a misuse of the phrase. As Bush is mistaken and, arguably, against Christian values when he consider as possibly valid the idea of the levels of citizens: Christians and non-Christians. Anyway, his opinion is not relevant here; using he as an argument would be like using Locke's support of slavery as a critic to the entire Enlightenment (notably, mostly against the practice).

Your analogy does not work - I am not using Bush's opinion as a critic of Christianity. I am using it as typical of what the phrase means when it is used - not mis-usage, typical usage.

A clearer example:

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,149846,00.html - an article covering a lawsuit about discrimination against atheists in the U.S. military. The article included a poll question:

"Should atheists and pagans be afforded the same rights as Christians, Jews, or Muslims?"

Now, in wording the answers, the author went for inflammatory language. The 'Yes' option reads "Yes. It's time the Jesus freaks got a grip and stopped acting like the Taliban with their religious policing." So, in their wording for the 'No' option they picked wording that was similarly inflammatory. You can click on the poll link to read it for yourself - it still works. The 'No' option reads "Hell, no. American money doesn't read "In God We Trust" for nothing." When looking for an inflammatory phrase that embodied the sentiment that atheists and pagans should be second class citizens, "In God We Trust" fits the bill just like "Jesus Freaks" and "Taliban" fit the bill for the yes option.

Bush did not misuse the phrase. The phrase IS intended to convey that those who do not trust in God are not to be considered Americans - Americans believe in God. Not convinced yet? Another recent example:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,308405,00.html

Trustees of the largest high school district in the country voted 4-1 Monday night to mandate displays bearing the nation's motto — "In God We Trust" — and other historical documents in over 2,300 district classrooms and offices...

"I encouraged the trustees to put this on the agenda," she said. "It's very important. We need to promote patriotism and promote it in our schools. We can't just assume that the younger generations are going to have that strong love for God and their country the way the older generations do."

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