One nation under God

For the moment, the Pledge of Allegiance is safe from judicial mutilation.The U.S. Supreme Court last Monday in Elk Grove Unified School District vs. Newdow (June 14, 2004) voided a ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals holding that the words "under God" in the 31-word Pledge constituted a law respecting an establishment of religion offensive to the First Amendment. But Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for a five-member majority, declined to affirm the constitutionality of the Pledge, a reticence that could demoralize United States soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan risking that last full measure of devotion to protect the nation's security and religious freedom.

The court is citing another one of its rulings regarding an Oregon case in which a memorial was removed: Separation of Church & State Committee v. City of Eugene. The Skinner Butte cross was also a war memorial.

According to the ruling:

Buono is deeply offended by the cross display on public land in an area that is not open to others to put up whatever symbols they choose. A practicing Roman Catholic, Buono does not find a cross itself objectionable, but stated that the presence of the cross is objectionable to him as a religious symbol because it rests on federal land.

Although he's a Catholic, he persuaded the court to opine:

The district court found that “Buono will tend to avoid Sunrise Rock on his visits to the Preserve as long as the cross
remains standing, even though traveling down Cima Road isoften the most convenient means of access to the Preserve.”
Buono, 212 F. Supp. 2d at 1207. Buono is, in other words, nable to “freely us[e]” the area of the Preserve around the
cross because of the government’s allegedly unconstitutional actions. SCSC, 93 F.3d at 619 n.2.

Here are some pics:

The one in the center offends me the most. These people clearly do not respect the rule of law. They are appealing to the courts for shelter, and yet they allow it to give none to the majority of Americans who want nothing more than to honor their WW1 veterans in peace.

The ruling ends:

Finally, defendants suggest that a reasonable observer aware of the history of the cross—such as its placement by
private individuals—would believe that the government is not endorsing Christianity by allowing the cross to remain at the
site. However, a reasonable observer who is that wellinformed would know the full history of the cross: that Congress
has designated the cross as a war memorial and prohibited the use of funds to remove it, and that the Park Service
has denied similar access for expression by an adherent of the 7378 BUONO v. NORTON Buddhist faith. “ ‘Whatever else the Establishment Clause may mean . . . , it certainly means at the very least that government may not demonstrate a preference for one particular sect or creed (including a preference for Christianity over other religions).’ ” SCSC, 93 F.3d at 619 (citation omitted) (quoting Allegheny County v. Greater Pittsburgh ACLU, 492 U.S. 573, 605 (1989)). [10] This case is materially indistinguishable from SCSC. Thus, even assuming that the government has a clearly secular purpose in maintaining display of the cross as a war memorial, see Lemon, 403 U.S. at 612, the Sunrise Rock cross violates the Establishment Clause. AFFIRMED.
7379 BUONO v. NORTON

If this case is upheld by the Supreme Court, we will eventually have to remove every military cemetary cross in the land.

My heart grows more heavy every day as the very foundation of our country is destroyed.

The sad thing is that they're using the very kernel of religious freedom against us. The first amendment, from our most sacred laws, our bill of rights, makes it clear that we are not a theocracy. And yet to preserve our religious freedom in the battle these "citizens" have brought against us, we find ourselves tending toward passing laws that verge on theocratic positions.

Before all of this started, before all of the non-Christian/Jewish immigration, before all of the Marxism, nobody noticed that we had religious ceremonies and pageantry. We either agreed or we were polite enough to respect those around us who felt moved to prayer, or moved to at least mention God in a public capacity.

I think the Reagan funerary observance was an important turning point. Our elected government officials didn't bring sectarianism into their comments, and everyone else who knew him seemed to recall his deep Christianity.

The whole world listened while the "rest of us" enraged the ACLU one minute by the next.

Gee, it seems that if the founders had wanted America to be a Christian nation they would have said something about that in the Constitution. Instead, what did they write, the establishment clause to insure that no one religion would become the religion of the country.

And the flimsy argument that the words "Under God" and "Supreme Being" affirm that America is a Christian nation is simply a lie or at the very least a myth purported by people who have no understanding of wherefore they speak.

Both those phrases could be applied to hundreds of religions throughout the world and throughout history. I really wish the theocrats would stop trying to take control of the reins of power or something is going to have to be done about them.

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