This thread is kind of odd, especially compared to all the other trump stories and all the other terrible things republicans have said about atheists.
You don't really get more american and less like a worrying break with the past than using a formulation that appears in the Pledge of Allegiance and the most common form of the Gettysburg Address. What's the big deal?
Because it is a break with the past. As Thomas Jefferson wrote,
American obsession with The One True God is a comparatively recent thing - it was added to the pledge in 1954.
I feel like you didn't really read what I said. For one thing the Gettysburg address which is where the "under God" line comes from (and yes while I know Lincoln probably didn't say under God at the actual speech, he wrote it in the most widely publicised version, which is the important thing) was a century before the Cold War, so not comparatively recent. For another even if we accept that the obsession with the One True God is a comparatively recent thing historically, it is still 60 years ago, meaning a candidate affirming it now is hardly a break with the past. It's like saying because Vermont has a very long history of voting for Republicans, and it's Democratic swing is comparatively recent, when Clinton wins it in a few weeks it will be a break with the past.
The Jefferson quote is rather silly as well, because the issue here is theism versus atheism not Christianity versus any other religion, and the Founders, while obviously wishing for a secular state and not being especially christian, came down firmly on the theism side with the whole "Endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights".
Look, you don't have to like that the pledge of allegiance says under God, or that the coins say "in God we trust", I certainly don't. But it's silly to pretend that it is the same issue as Christianity versus every other religion (obviously there are some similarities because Christianity is by far the largest theism, but it's not the same), and it's silly to pretend that Trump using phrases that go back in american history at least 150 years is anywhere near the top of a list of bad things he's done.I suppose it depends on whether you see Trump's invocation of "God" as a sincere expression of faith and goodwill (which is the general historical use up until the latter 20th, albeit with less that perfect tolerance by modern standards), or as a a dog-whistle for wanna-be theocrats and bigotry.
Obviously, I'm confident that anyone who believes the former is an idiot.
