Sacred text Kevin? To some, perhaps, Paine's works would be a sacred canon. My own view, when some aghast and offended aunt asks: "Is nothing sacred?" is to think: "Well, no, nothing is sacred. It's all the product of the human mind, be it the Sermon on the Mount, the Rights of Man, Das Kapital or the loopier bits of Leviticus
Nevertheless, there's a difference between admiring something and wishing to adopt it as a maxim and using it to abrogate my own free will or to justify the denigration of others!
Some texts express ideas that I don't have the wit or style to express myself, and I'm happy as Larry to plagiarise those - but I wouldn't feel comfortable using them as a moral crutch.
So, let others trust in god - personally I put about as much trust in the idea as I do in the tooth fairy and Father Christmas!