Because we are a benignly pluralistic, Christian nation.
If you don't like it, you can either deal with this inconvenience here, or find a benignly pluralistic Buddhist, Pagan, or atheist nation of your choosing.
Posted on 06/26/2002 11:25:21 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
UNBELIEVABLE. BREAKING ON FOX: SF APPEALS COURT SAYS PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ENDORSES RELIGION, AND IS THEREBY UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
In fact, the 9th Circuit ruling is a gross legal error (little that the 9th Circuit does should be considered "unbelievable", since the Judges in that circuit are capable of anything except issuing logical decisions or showing proper judicial restraint.)
The very persons who wrote and adopted the Constitution opened their sessions with a prayer. The House and Senate do so today. In adopting the First Amendment, the founders sought to prevent the government from restricting the free practice of religion and forbade the government from establishing an official State Religion. The words of the amendment are clear, as is the history leading to the adoption thereof.
It is patently absurd to rule that the words "under God" in the Pledge constitute the establishment of a religion.
This ruling DOES rule the Pledge of Allegience unconstitutional AS IT IS WRITTEN. The rights of the vast majority are abrogated in favor of the looney-tune whims of a few California Fruits and Nuts--something the 9th circuit specializes in.
It IS? Now I gotta pick my jaw up off the keyboard.
Is it still constitutional if the lesbians are Janet Reno and Madeline Al(not that)bright?
I'm gonna be sick.
Shalom.
I'd wager that with this ruling, you'd get in more trouble for saying you love your country than you would for cursing in class. There's something wrong with this picture.
I'm an agnostic, and from a very young age I merely mouthed the words 'under God'. Problem solved. The rest of it is fine by me. If they had forced me to say those words, then I'd have raised holy hell (small h).
Sure thing ...
The fact that the court ruled on what is basically a phrase that is strictly voluntary, as it should be, shows that this is nothing more than Judicial meddling.
Without hesitation, the Supreme Court should spike this court and censor them for meddling in affairs outside of their jurisdiction.
Good for you. The real answer to this nonsense is to get the government out of the education business. If anything is unconstitutional, it is government involvement in the eductation of our progency.
Wonder how many people took the time to read it instead of flying off the handle.
Is that not a tablet of the Judaic TEN COMMANDMENTS setting at the foot of "Justice"?
See Post 502.....
The comments that have appeared regarding the origin of the Pledge appear to be correct.
Which is precisely what Dr. Newdow was trying to do.
Make up your mind.
Because we are a benignly pluralistic, Christian nation.
If you don't like it, you can either deal with this inconvenience here, or find a benignly pluralistic Buddhist, Pagan, or atheist nation of your choosing.
You can, or your kid can stand their and be silent and don't recite the pledge. A sophisticated person would have no problems with that.
Don't forget .. The school DID NOT force her to say it either
Chilling, but nothing surprises me any longer.
The Pledge of Allegiance
A Short Historyby Dr. John W. Baer
Copyright 1992 by Dr. John W. Baer
Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist. In his Pledge, he is expressing the ideas of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, author of the American socialist utopian novels, Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897).
Francis Bellamy in his sermons and lectures and Edward Bellamy in his novels and articles described in detail how the middle class could create a planned economy with political, social and economic equality for all. The government would run a peace time economy similar to our present military industrial complex.
The Pledge was published in the September 8th issue of The Youth's Companion, the leading family magazine and the Reader's Digest of its day. Its owner and editor, Daniel Ford, had hired Francis in 1891 as his assistant when Francis was pressured into leaving his baptist church in Boston because of his socialist sermons. As a member of his congregation, Ford had enjoyed Francis's sermons. Ford later founded the liberal and often controversial Ford Hall Forum, located in downtown Boston.
In 1892 Francis Bellamy was also a chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education in the National Education Association. As its chairman, he prepared the program for the public schools' quadricentennial celebration for Columbus Day in 1892. He structured this public school program around a flag raising ceremony and a flag salute - his 'Pledge of Allegiance.'
His original Pledge read as follows: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag and (to*) the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.' He considered placing the word, 'equality,' in his Pledge, but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans. [ * 'to' added in October, 1892. ]
Dr. Mortimer Adler, American philosopher and last living founder of the Great Books program at Saint John's College, has analyzed these ideas in his book, The Six Great Ideas. He argues that the three great ideas of the American political tradition are 'equality, liberty and justice for all.' 'Justice' mediates between the often conflicting goals of 'liberty' and 'equality.'
In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference, under the 'leadership of the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution, changed the Pledge's words, 'my Flag,' to 'the Flag of the United States of America.' Bellamy disliked this change, but his protest was ignored.
In 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.
Bellamy's granddaughter said he also would have resented this second change. He had been pressured into leaving his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons. In his retirement in Florida, he stopped attending church because he disliked the racial bigotry he found there.
What follows is Bellamy's own account of some of the thoughts that went through his mind in August, 1892, as he picked the words of his Pledge:
It began as an intensive communing with salient points of our national history, from the Declaration of Independence onwards; with the makings of the Constitution...with the meaning of the Civil War; with the aspiration of the people...
The true reason for allegiance to the Flag is the 'republic for which it stands.' ...And what does that vast thing, the Republic mean? It is the concise political word for the Nation - the One Nation which the Civil War was fought to prove. To make that One Nation idea clear, we must specify that it is indivisible, as Webster and Lincoln used to repeat in their great speeches. And its future?
Just here arose the temptation of the historic slogan of the French Revolution which meant so much to Jefferson and his friends, 'Liberty, equality, fraternity.' No, that would be too fanciful, too many thousands of years off in realization. But we as a nation do stand square on the doctrine of liberty and justice for all...
If the Pledge's historical pattern repeats, its words will be modified during this decade. Below are two possible changes.
Some prolife advocates recite the following slightly revised 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, born and unborn.'
A few liberals recite a slightly revised version of Bellamy's original Pledge: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with equality, liberty and justice for all.'
Amen. Also I am making a bumper sticker for my car with the words
"One Nation Under God"
I have send e-mail to everyone on my list , urging them to do the same.
Not only bumper stickers, but signs for home, for the office.
This nation needs to be peppered with "One Nation Under God" signs tommorrow from sea to shining sea. Send your e-mails!!!
Of course. That's the entire agenda of a court system that is flagrantly obscene as to its biases.
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