I’m no scholar of the Bible, and, I’ll confess I know the verse from Hosea 8:7 mostly from the movie Young Guns, where it comes up a number of times, notably at the end when Emilio Estevez shoots Jack Palance between the eyes and says, “Reap it, Murphy, you son of a bitch.”
The original Biblical version, depending on your translation, says something like:
For they sow the wind And they reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; It yields no grain. Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up.
Sowing the wind, in this case, refers to the making of a vain show of worship; a spectacle that might fool the gullible, but which will ultimately yield no fruit.
Speaking of vain shows of worship, enter Dan Burton (h/t Blue Indiana).
Saying America is “moving in a very, very wrong direction,” Indiana Rep. Dan Burton says he will introduce legislation mandating that “In God We Trust” be retained in a prominent place on U.S. currency and coinage.
“Recently, there were thousands of coins minted without ‘In God We Trust’ on them, and now they’re talking about putting ‘In God We Trust’ in an obscure place on coins so that people can’t read it, right on the edge of the coin,” the Republican complains.
Practically preaching from the pulpit, the congressman warns that “once you start turning your back on the good Lord, I think you are going to reap the whirlwind, and this is something this nation cannot afford to do right now.”
As Thomas at Blue Indiana points out, Burton is fiddling while Rome burns if he’s spending his limited time between rounds of golf obsessing about the design of our coinage. Just who is sowing the wind here? Rumor has it there is real work to be done, and now is not the time for meaningless spectacles of piety. Unfortunately, even if it’s Dan who is doing the wind sowing, it’s the common citizenry who will get the brunt of the whirlwind.
Burton must be part of the more than 50% of Americans who think that Christianity was written into the U.S. Constitution:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-11-amendment_N.htm
Scary stuff…
Jesus.
As a pastor, I have no problem with them removing “In God We Trust” from the money. It was Jesus himself who grew indignant at the money-changers outside of the temple; and it was he who also said, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” With the rate that sub-prime mortgage companies are crashing, bankrupticies are happening, interest rates charged by credit card companies, etc.; I’d rather not have God’s name associated with money!
Was it last year that the old chestnut of having a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning came up and someone in the Senate said, “Is this the best use I could make of my time as Senator – YES” – ??
(sighs deeply)
Sighing with you.
And thinking back to this morning, when I was behind a car on I-69 with an “In God We Trust” license plate underneath a bumper sticker that said, “Go F*** Yourself.” (Editing added by me.)
If written reminders of “God” fall below a certain threshold, Senator Burton has a hard time keeping himself from laying down with women other than his wife.
Oh, Burton’s just pandering. If he’s listening to less-capable brother Woody he’s in worse shape than I thought.
Wow, Marie! Wish you had a picture of that! It would make it several times around the world in an email-chain…
We live in a photoshop world – get cracking!
LOL! I might…
However, it did occur to me that what she saw may have been a protest to the IGWT plates. Someone that can’t stand them might have said “SURE!” when the BMV pushed them for free, knowing that it would go right above their sticker.
I’d put it at 50/50.
I don’t have the plate for two reasons:
1. Seperation of Church and State. I would have no problem if it were like other specialty plates.
2. When I, a poor, sinful being, make a bone-headed mistake; I don’t want God getting blamed!
Sorry, Jason! Couldn’t put down my mascara and cell phone quick enough to get my camera out of my purse. ;)
The way the guy was driving, and based on another bumper sticker I didn’t quite have time to read (but recall it was one of those juvenile “attitude problem”-type stickers), I’m inclined to think he was just an a-hole. And giving God a bad name, as the good reverend said.
Sadly, I live in Burton’s district, and if I moved a few blocks, I’d be in Carson’s. These have to be the two most gerrymandered districts in the country.
I agree with the Rev on the IGWT plate.
We can only hope that California’s efforts to make district-drawing an independent process will lead to some improvement here.
Actually, these days you ought to be able to use voter registration data to automate the process, according to some publicly known algorithm.
Basically, I think you’d want to make our US rep districts as even in population as possible, have them cross as few governmental boundaries as possible, and be as regularly-shaped as possible (which I think you can do by seeking to minimize the ratio of boundary length to contained area).
Or will I first see flying pigs?
Oink.
and the backstory about William Bonney,AKA “Billy the Kid”, is that he was born in Indiana. and had a sort of acquaintance with New Mexico Governor Lew Wallace, also a noted Hoosier. I’m not sure if there was any other Lew Wallace, so there is an interesting hoosier conncetion to a famous outlaw of the west.
Who also happened to be a lawman, in the Lincoln county Range War, as a “Regulator”, and as an outlaw, as we all know.
for more history fun, go to google, and read more, or wikipedia.
just a comment for the common erudition of all you high-brow hoosiers who frequent this fine blog. for low brow hoosiers, read http://x-wire.blogspot.com
thank you.