Tuesday, March 18, 2008

God and my right - nothing to do with Jesus

As a hallmark and stamp of Crown Authority the word 'God' has been appearing within the design of a Coat of Arms on most ministerial papers issued from Royal Households since the 12th century and in a revised version from HM Government when Tax and Duty became a State office. “Dieu et mon droit”, meaning ‘God and my right’, is immortalised by HM Government as signifying rule and authority. Its meaning in the context of a modern multi-faith society that HM Government proudly boast is being shaped by their more liberal ideology has enormous implications for dotting the 'i' in identity as a nation. It is not a topic that helicopter heads in their PR and Media factories at Wapping or Fleet Street have much time for these days. So busy are they conspiring to deceive the public through propaganda and pseudo news (with the exception of Channel 4 perhaps) about the reasons for the debacle in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for the horrific waste of life their decisions have caused, they simply don’t have time to face up to the reality of what this phrase actually means.
The God who is given such prominence in the legal and military livery of British Royalty and her two poodles, Government and Parliament, must be very proud to receive such filial duty from such loyal servants. I rather suspect though God’s feelings on the matter are probably not quite as compatible as the Coat of Arms suggest. The word ‘God’ means nothing to a race that doesn’t honour the Son and equally the word ‘civilisation’ means nothing to God who doesn’t recognise many of its violent self seeking attributes in the secular history of it’s short spell on Earth.
If ever there was a case for using God’s name in vain then the meaningless repetition of it on a gold leaf emblem topped with a crown and a lion must stand out as the most long standing example. Not only is it pertinent to the case that no-one really knows precisely who this God actually is and where He has come from but, more to the point, no-one can agree on a doctrine that clearly defines His character, nature and form even when they do. Neither can people agree on doctrines to define the precise nature and character of socialism or nationalism. In both cases the canonical narrative upon which they build their beliefs is so full of vague and abstract terms, to do with values and measurements essentially egocentric, that even the laws and regulations they imagine will homogenise people into a state of peaceful co-existence are in fact passed by Church and State to justify the ceremony of violence, fear and intimidation.
The perception of God’s character, form and nature is as laughable today as it was when it was portrayed by the imaginations of men in the Old Testament who threw out His Son using these secular perceptions.
The idea of a ‘Christian’ or ‘Moslem ‘country existing anywhere therefore in eternity, or that God specifically invests in nationhood and tribalism, comes mainly from unbelievers who project their own ignorance into the heavens by vainly associating a big name like God with reasoning and ideas that are as flawed as the big bang theory. ‘We beat the Germans, the French, the Spanish, the Prussians, God gave us victory’ is a phrase as intellectually impotent and as vain as ‘God, and my right’.
The perception of God by unbelievers is so twisted what when I hear people in this country go off in a rage about religion causing war and conflict I can't but help thinking of the great symbol of Britishness portrayed by the elements that make up the British Emblem contextualised by a phrase stamped in gold that begs the question ‘which evil religion is this then that your taxes preserve in the form of an emblem of military and political mayhem and might?’ Eh?

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