December 2005 Issue

So Help Us Our Guardian Deities

The U.S. Constitution doesn?t mention God or any specific religion. But if it did, it would place the United States in the company of nations like these…

Illustration: Mark Matcho

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AFGHANISTAN “…no law shall run counter to the principles of the sacred religion of Islam…”

ALBANIA “…with faith in God and/or other universal values…”

BAHRAIN “…the Qur’an has been remiss in nothing.”

BHUTAN “Blessed with…the protection of our guardian deities…”

INDONESIA “…the sovereign Republic of Indonesia which is based on the belief in the One and Only God…”

IRELAND “In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred…. Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial…”

NEPAL “Nepal is a multiethnic, multilingual, democratic, independent, indivisible, sovereign, Hindu and Constitutional Monarchical Kingdom.”

NORTH KOREA “Comrade Kim Il Sung was a genius ideological theoretician and a genius art leader, an ever victorious, iron-willed brilliant commander, a great revolutionary and politician, and a great human being. Comrade Kim Il Sung’s great idea and achievements in leadership are the eternal treasures of the nation…”

PAKISTAN “Whereas sovereignty over the entire Universe belongs to Almighty Allah alone, and the authority to be exercised by the people of Pakistan within the limits prescribed by Him is a sacred trust…”

RWANDA “Trusting in God Almighty…”

SAUDI ARABIA “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a sovereign Arab Islamic state with Islam as its religion; God’s Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet, God’s prayers and peace be upon him, are its constitution…”

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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