opinion article

[briannell]

SUMMARY: "Pledge of Allegiance" shouldn't be turned into a "Pledge of Atheism."

A federal judge last week threatened to rekindle the tiresome, trivialized debate over separation of church and state with a ruling calling the "Pledge of Allegiance" unconstitutional because it includes a reference to God.

No, it's not your imagination. This is exactly the same issue the U.S. Supreme Court dispensed with last year. It's also the same plaintiff - California born-again atheist Michael Newdow. The Supreme Court flicked his last attack on the Pledge aside, ruling that he didn't have legal standing to mount his challenge. He'd sued on behalf of his child, whom he didn't think should hear or have the opportunity to say the word "god" in public school. The Supreme Court said he wasn't entitled to sue because he didn't have legal custody of his daughter; his ex-wife did, and she disagreed with him. Newdow's back in court after adding parents who do have custody of their children to his case. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento ruled the Pledge violates the right of schoolchildren to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God."

This is incorrect - and wrong. It's sure to be overturned, if not by the most-reversed court in the land, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, then surely by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court's ruling this summer permitting the display of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Texas state Capitol should apply to this issue. In the Ten Commandments case, the court said a display respecting the religious traditions of many Americans is constitutionally permissible, in contrast to something that endorses a religion.

No one but a zealot could possibly construe the Pledge to be endorsement of a religion.

This is the Pledge: "I pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all." The purpose clearly is secular. Those reciting it pledge their allegiance to the United States of America, not God. The reference to God is akin to the "In God We Trust" printed on money, reference to God in the Declaration of Independence and the reference to God in the oaths of office taken by public officials, including judges. That is, it's a reference respectful of the religious traditions of many Americans, not advocacy of a religion. No religion on Earth is limited to the mere reference to God.

But there is a religion, of sorts, dedicated to the rejection of God. At least as practiced by some, atheism has all the trappings of religion. It's a creed, a belief system based on faith, a philosophy full of rituals, which include filing lawsuits aimed at imposing an absolutist point of view on others. As we read the First Amendment, barring Congress from establishing an official religion, government-sponsored denial of religion is no more acceptable than government-sanctioned practice of religion.
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[gtapp]

"The Ten Commandments"

A padded marketing list put together by a group of hustlers in the attempt to control people while making a profit!

[gtapp]

"GOD"

The leader of this marry band of Hustlers. As in GODFATHER!