Having recently moved to Brooklyn and discovering that the Quakers are still active, this borough joined the rest of NYC in 1898 after a long campaign because it wanted to remain independent. The Quakers are tolerant of differences, believe in equality, and are progressive which I thought was the basis of the US. But now I’m pondering the independence of the US from religion and how far we are from those basic principles of the Quakers.
During McCarthyism in the ’50s, we added: “In God we Trust” on our money, inserted God into the pledge of allegiance and it’s time to take it off. I would think God/s would be offended at having her/his name on money as it sounds s/he could be bought and traded. Politically you could argue that s/he has been by both parties. Do we need God/s involved in the running of the economy or the country? If so we should make the God/s of all religions equal with a say. After discovering religion here in America I’d go around saying Jesus was Jewish, let’s just say that wasn’t received well in my mainly Jewish town. Still have no clue why that’s offensive or why I was told to stop.
Maybe just maybe if we take out all the references to God in the public domain we can start setting the expectations that discussions should be based on what’s good for the citizens and how we move forward and fix things. You know like education, healthcare, and equality to start with. Working from a non-secular base may be a solution.
Or I’d be up for the succession of Brooklyn to be independent again.