Good try, but not quite. Reference of any kind to a supernatural being is indeed religion. Parsing "a" vs. "an" vs. "the" is not the solution. The Pledge, by being the Official Pledge (with "under God" being added by Congress in 1954), is indeed unconstitutional, and by adding "under God" Congress made a law. They shouldn't have. Even more egregious is the word "indivisible," clearly anathema to the founders. Even Lincoln agreed, before he drank of the corrupting powers of the presidency. Here's a quote of his from 1848: "Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right - a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world."
My personal pledge is, "I pledge allegiance to my God and my conscience."
As to freedom of speech, people can still say anything they want. You are free to stand on your property and say "I pledge allegiance to the US, which is a nation established as under the rule of Jesus Christ as he is understood by 7th-day Adventists." But you don't have a right to make it the official pledge of the nation. Freedom is precious; you waste mine by requiring that I bow to the God you worship.
Mr. Edmonds,
Thank you for your reply. I must, however, take issue. Once again, I must go to the Bill of Rights and the Founding Fathers' intents. There is no "separation of church and state" in the constitution. That phrase came out of the Supreme Court. The Bill of Rights states:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech"
As I'm sure you know, the Founding Fathers did not want there to be any particular religion that the United States endorsed, i.e., as occurred in England with the Church of England. They did not want the President of the United States to pick the head of a particular religion, either. They wanted to ensure that someone who was a Deist would not be precluded from serving our government because they chose to be a Deist rather than, say, a Catholic Church, Seventh Day Adventist, or a Quaker, or any one of numerous other religious affiliations.
Our government cannot "establish" a religion. But neither can it prohibit the expression of religion or religious beliefs. They wanted to protect the citizenry from being forced to join one particular religious sect. But they also wanted to protect the religious rights of people, which they deemed to be extremely important.
When one says "one nation, under God," we espouse our pledge to this Country, and are not pledging our faith to any particular religion, or to the God as I may understand Him, or the God as someone else may understand "Her." And if someone is an atheist, they are free to not say that phrase in the Pledge, as is any person who wishes to not Pledge their allegiance to America. No one has ever been forced to say the Pledge.
The 9th Circuit's ruling has taken away the rights of thousands. Two men have decided that the Founding Fathers were wrong: we shall not be a country where we have "freedom of religion," rather, it shall be "free of religion." And that is not freedom at all.
Sounds like your sentiments are similar.