Posted on 06/24/2010 12:59:53 PM PDT by TaraP
coalition of humanist and nontheist groups has brought what they call a "patriotic message" to North Carolinians: "One Nation Indivisible."
The phrase is plastered on billboards throughout the Tar Heel State and is intended to point out how "every U.S. citizen who doesn't believe in a monotheistic god is being 'officially' marginalized, disrespected, and discriminated against by the insertion of 'under God' in the Pledge" of Allegiance.
One of the ads appears in Charlotte on the Billy Graham Parkway.
The $15,000 ad campaign was launched this week by the North Carolina Secular Association, just weeks before Independence Day.
The group touts itself as consisting of "your friends and family, your neighbors and co-workers."
"Whether you are religious or not we ask you to help end official discrimination and personal prejudice against your secular neighbors because of what we believe ... or don't believe," the group states.
The words "under God" were added to the pledge in 1954. Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow made several attempts in court to remove the terms but failed each time. Most recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in March that as a whole, the pledge "is an endorsement of our form of government, not of religion or any particular sect." When the pledge was amended in 1954, Congress' predominant purpose was "patriotic, not religious," Judge Carlos Bea wrote for the majority.
But Joseph McDaniel Stewart, vice president of FreeThoughtAction, which contributed funds for the ad campaign in North Carolina, argues that when the terms "under God" were inserted between "one nation" and "indivisible," "they made a lie out of both those ideals because you can't have an indivisible nation if you draw a line between the godly and godless."
Secular and nontheist groups are particularly concentrating their efforts on North Carolina where public officials must hold to a belief in God.
The state constitution states: "The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God."
"Even if this requirement can't be enforced because it violates the U.S. Constitution, it's still there," said William Warren of the Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics, in a statement.
North Carolina, home to world renowned evangelist Billy Graham, is one of the most religious states in the country, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Eighty-one percent say they believe in God with absolute certainty, 69 percent say religion is very important in their lives, 68 percent pray at least once a day, and 49 percent attend religious services at least once a week. The data comes from the Pew Forum's 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey.
LOL. Discrimination? Whatever.
All 15 of them were able to afford a sign? Wow.
True atheists/agnostics feel no need to evangelize — they don’t know what’s true, and they don’t care what you think is true.
Anti-Christian “atheists” evangelize incessantly. The problem (non-theologically speaking) is not their atheism, it is their anti-Christianity.
SnakeDoc
Sounds good to me. Which part do they want?
And removing those words would also draw a line. Argument fail.
I would find the statement “One Nation Indivisible.” to be very divisive
Lessee now, nice sign but just WHO’S moral code, who’s laws shall we abide by?? Obama’s? Kerry’s? Maybe Pelosi’s?
No thanks, I’ll continue with the unchanging TRUTH of the Bible and our Lord and Savior. Thanks.
I remember a 60 Minutes segment on Madeline Murray O’Hare, where she said her group was not against Christianity. The camera panned to a table top full of bumper stickers. One read: “Jesus Is Lard”. Go for a nice long drive Maddy.
"Under God" has been the motto and part of the pledge since 1954, yet so many people see that time as the standard, followed by downward slide. So lot of good it did, right?
E Pluribus Unum was our motto for over a century, and it was a good one, "from many one" describing the very core value of this country, that no matter where we come from or what our differences are, we are Americans. Before the change in attitude, immigrants learned the language, wanted to be Americans. Now they think they can immigrate to America without really becoming American, and even doing the smallest thing like learn the language. You reached for "Under God" and having failed to achieve it, still succeeded in letting E Pluribus Unum die. Thanks.
Many of us here in NC agree with you.
God (or her parents) called her Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg.
She picked out the name "Jane Seymour" herself, after one of Henry VIII's wives.
Yes..But she does not hold a Candle to my grandmother...
A Woman who was loved by everyone that knew her..
A Woman of little means...Who had alot of heartbreak, yet she had more love in her than anyone I have ever known....
GOD took her back to heaven, and I know said..Your love and beauty is a reflection of heaven..
Come on in!
I think we worship two different God’s. LOL
That is not Jany Seymour! /s LOL
So the country’s failing because of too much faith?
Putting "Under God" in a pledge doesn't have much to do with the faith of the people or the success of the country. It's worthless grandstanding. It being there only serves to give the religious a hard-on and everybody else a complaint.
In other words, if that being there had any effect whatsoever, religious people wouldn't be pining for the old days of when it was first put in there.
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