An Appropriate Excerpt

I've always loved this part of the play:

Beneatha: God hasn't got a thing to do with it.

Mama: Beneatha- that just wasn't necessary.

Beneatha: Well- neither is God. I get sick of hearing about God.

Mama: Beneatha!

Beneatha: I mean it! I'm just tired of hearing about God all the time. What has He got to do with anything? Does he pay tuition?

Mama: You 'bout to get your fresh little jaw slapped!

Beneatha: Why? Why can't I say what I want to around here, like everbody else?

Mama: Because it's not nice to talk like that. You wasn't raised that way. Me and your daddy got you and Brother to church every Sunday.

Beneatha: You don't understand. It's all a matter of ideas. And God is just one idea that I don't accept. Now it's not important. I'm not going to be immoral or commit crimes because I don't believe. I don't even think about that. I just get so tired of Him getting the credit for things the human race achieves through its own effort. Now, there simply is no God. There's only man. And it's he who makes miracles.

(Mama slaps Beneatha)

Mama: Now you say after me: In my mother's house, there is still God. In my mother's house, there is still God.

Beneatha: In my mother's house, there's still God.

Mama: There's just some things we won't have around here. Not long as I'm still head of this family.

Beneatha: Yes, ma'am.