In reaction to the editorial comment in the Advertiser entitled ‘We might as well get a new anthem’, I take into considering where the author writes “… forcing children to embrace religions at the expense of forsaking their own.”
And which religions would that be? This is not an attack against Christianity per se, but to keep public schools free of the indoctrination of a specific religion.
It also says in the article: “The motto of America, as found in the Star-Spangled Banner is that in God they trust.”
This song was not a motto, it was sung by the 125th Pennsylvania infantry regiment during the Civil war in 1862, and was added to certain coins due to a petition from Rev Watkinson.
It being a motto for the US was only signed into law by Eisenhower in 1957, to distinguish the US from the USSR. Even the “under god” in the Pledge of Alliance was only added (unofficially) in 1948 and officially amended in 1954. There is no mention of “under god” in the official record(s) of the Gettysburg Address.
The quote of Jefferson, as used, and as it was put on his memorial in 1943, is wrong.
Here is the actual quote from his “A Summary View of the Rights of British America” (1774): “The god who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time: the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin (separate) them.”
Note the original spelling of god with a small “g”. In his statement, Jefferson claimed that people could not separate the fact of life from the idea of liberty, even though they might enforce a temporary separation, and he certainly did not claim that any god was necessary for the presence of freedom.
Jefferson was a deist, not a Christian. Most of the US’s founding fathers were agnostics or deists, which is one of the reasons they insisted on the separation of church and State.
The whole ‘America as a Christian nation’ idea began during and directly after WWII, and was actually politically motivated against the communist USSR.
Interesting note, the Nazi Germans used the old Prussian motto ‘Gott mit uns’ (God with us), on all military equipment and armour.
As to South Africa, it says: “they are conducted on an equitable basis”. Very true, but note the equitable basis. That means that if there are any other religions (or lack thereof) in the school, it must be given equal time and observance.
Section 31 also includes the ‘community’, not schools. This whole debacle came about because certain non-Christian school children were victimised and ostracised because they were public with their lack of religion.
The solution is clear. Catholics, Judaists, and Muslims have all done it for decades in SA. Open private Christian schools and send your children there. Public schools should never encourage one religion over another.
And yes, we can certainly do with a new national anthem, separate from the old, the struggle and even history.
Give us an uplifting new anthem that looks towards the future of all South Africans, regardless of ethnicity, class or religion.
