|
|
CONTROVERSY IN EU WHETHER TO NAME GOD
IN CONSTITUTION
By A J Nseir
European Union representatives reached a stalemate Wednesday when debating over the decision to name God in the EU’s first constitution.
A 13-member panel battled over this issue as they attempted to draft the charter’s first six articles, which deals with the values and powers of Europe.According to a recent USA Today article, many conservative EU officialswant the charter to contain Europe’s beliefs and values concerning God. Specifically, the value that, “those who believe in God as the source of truth, justice, good and beauty.”
Dr. Harold Trulear, a pastor at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in
Philadelphia, PA, feels that the Europeans’ real problem lies within their level of organized religion.“Check the numbers: Europeans don't go to church. So why the argument about naming God? If God is important without organized religion, then what precisely is God?” Trulear said. “If you answer that God is universal and therefore should be acknowledged apart form organized religion, I respond that air and water are everywhere, yet do not command Constitutional attention.”
Although EU officials said that the constitution would most likely abstain from mentioning God, the text can be changed, according to a recent associated press article.
Numerous countries with different religious beliefs are represented in the EU, all with different histories, and wishes for the constitution. The 20 conservatives who first propositioned the mention of God, wanted only to state God as a part of Europe’s “spiritual heritage.”
Brother Frank E. Kelly, director of campus ministry and professor at Marist College, in Poughkeepsie, NY, feels the separation of church and state is important to religious freedom.
“The separation of church and state is important because it recognizes and protects the rights of all churches and religious confessions to exist in freedom,” Kelly said.
Pastor Bethuel Dongo of the Kalagala Pentecostal Church in Uganda, Africa, sides with those supporting the inclusion of God in the charter.
“All the authority is established by God,” Dongo said. “The people in the European Union should recognize, and include God, and obey him. Whatever they do they should first know the will of God.”