Posted on 09/14/2009 1:53:53 PM PDT by Rodamala
It's a new school year, but an old fight is brewing in American classrooms. Teachers and administrators around the country are scratching their heads once again over the Pledge of Allegiance.
The courts have consistently ruled that students have the right not to recite the pledge in public schools. But now some First Amendment advocates are taking it one step further, arguing that the law compels educators to inform kids at the beginning of school that the decision is entirely up to them.
They're advocating a "Miranda warning" for the Pledge...
See the rest of article posted at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,550063,00.html.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I do have a question for Christian Freepers, though. How do you handle oaths such as the Pledge of Allegiance? It's my understanding that oaths to anyone other than God are wrong. Maybe I am wrong on that and need a Bible lesson (please do quote scripture).
You won’t find a similar “it’s up to you” option when it comes to the myths of man-made global warming or homosexuality as “normal”.
I’d be thrilled if I could get the students to be respectfully silent during the pledge if they are not going to participate.
This will be good news to the neo-Confederates.
Great point.
We ARE "one nation" except for the forces and threats within our borders and outside who seek to divide this nation. And we WERE founded on the principle of religious liberty. Our rights "come from God" (or in the absence of God, at least no Man) and not government.
Many of the world's one billion bragadocious muslims had no choice in that decision of faith. And those who do later decide to change may face death and persecution in their homelands for that decision.
If you have a faith that there IS NO GOD (the God of secular humanism, the no god God) and push this as an ideology (antithesism is on the upswing in the MSM), it has gone from personal believe to advocacy of the faith of atheism.
Atheism is on equal, NOT ABOVE the other religions of the world in the eyes of our system. Freedom of Religion is NOT Freedom FROM Religion. That would make Atheism "the one true faith" of the State. And some adherents to Atheism are quite insulting to the faiths of those who follow other religions. They do not exhibit "tolerance".
I’ll give it a shot and probably get skewered later. Oh well, here goes.
The Pledge, in my mind, is not an oath. We aren’t swearing. It is the outward demonstration of my loyalty to my nation, as represented by the Stars and Stripes. It even goes beyond that for me, to a point of pledging my allegiance to the idea of what America is supposed to be (the Framers’ ideal).
Bibically, speaking, we are told in Isaiah that “the government shall be upon His shoulder” in the prophecies of Jesus. In the NT, Jesus Himself states that we should “render unto Caesar those things which are Caesar’s, and render unto God, those things that are God’s.”
In the first instance, we are to understand that God sets up governments for His own reasons and we should show respect to those governments until they act in a way contrary to His Word. This is why we demonstrate our loyalty with the Pledge.
Secondly, we live here, we benefit from our citizenship, we have more opportunity than most of the world. Isn’t saying the Pledge simply “rendering unto Caesar”? We benefit; ergo, we show our loyalty.
Finally, I would submit that as long as we state, “one nation, under God”, we are showing the proper respect for God. It’s when we fail to do that and put our citizenship or our nation ahead of our Christianity that we get into trouble.
Just my two cents.
When I was a little boy in grade three, a new kid moved in who was being raised as a Jehovah's Witness. Nobody had any idea what that religion was about, all we knew was that he was "allowed" to not say the pledge. We all liked him, and he took zero teasing about it... it was just the way it was, but I always questioned why exactly his religion made him not say the Pledge.
I consider myself a patriot, and thus, I believe that our freedoms are not bestowed upon us by a government comprised of men ruling over other men, but that our rights are ordained by God, Himself. As patriotic as I may consider myself, part of me has always taken reservation regarding taking an oath of allegiance to the Flag and the Republic of a government of men. I guess a similar thing is my trepidation regarding Freemasonry and oaths involved in becoming a Free and Accepted Mason.
Your comments help me understand one way to look at it.
Thanks!
You hit the nail on the head!
I appreciate your kind response. Oddly enough, one of my good friends is in Baltimore, MD this week, and he took time out of his schedule to visit Fort McHenry on the anniversary of the writing of “The Star Spangled Banner.” He sent me a video of school children raising a reproduction of the flag Francis Scott Key saw from the river when he penned our national anthem. It is extremely moving and I wish that more schools would help build patriotic citizens as they did when we were children.
I remember learning all of the songs from the anthem to God Bless American, My Country ‘tis of Thee, etc. Heck, in third grade (1976), I played Patrick Henry and gave his famous “give me liberty or give me death” speech. You just don’t see that nowadays, and we are a lesser country for it.
I agree with your points on natural (God-given) law.
If you’re interested in a book that really points out the changes over the years and their significance, may I suggest “The 5,000 Year Leap”. It really has shown me where we started and what we have, to our detriment, become as a nation.
God bless!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.