Image by sroemerm via FlickrI was reading an opinion column by Nolan Finley in the Detroit News about whether editing God out of history distorts truth. I am not convinced that editing out God necessarily distorts the truth unless the event was specifically centered around God. Nolan uses the example of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving to make his point. Specifically, he asks, "Ask any grade school kid who the Pilgrims were giving thanks to on the first Thanksgiving and I'll lay you three-to-one odds that the answer you get is, "the Indians."" While this is only partially true, I am not sure it really distorts the meaning or historical relevancy of Thanksgiving.
I asked my daughter how she understood Thanksgiving and she said it is for giving thanks to the Indians and God for the bountiful harvest. I would accept my daughter's answer as historically correct. Note that my daughter is now a junior in high school and hasn't studied the Pilgrims since 2nd or 3rd grade.
Personally, I do not think God should be edited out of history in any way. Even though God does not likely exist, God has played direct and indirect roles throughout history. To remove God would potentially doom us to repeat the same mistakes as those who have used God to make history.
However, what I do have an issue with is teaching the glory of God or that our country and our world history were shaped by God. Our history was shaped by people who believed they were doing God's work not people chosen by God.
Another Fine Post from: No 2 Religion - Just Say No!
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