[doryfunk]

Rhema, the first ammendment doesnt guarantee freedom of religion or freedom from religion. It guarantees that Congress(the subject of the sentence) shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. That is to say that congress shall not pass a law establishing a state church or prohibiting another church from acting within the state. Thats all it says. It doesnt say anything about the actions of the people as individuals or the actions of the separate States.

Violette, you cant keep religion and government completely separate unless you restrict government jobs to those that hold no religion. Then you have state sponsored atheism.

searchfortruth, the pledge was originally written by a socialist, uitarian for the purpose of brainwashing Americans(particularly children) into believing that the union was indivisible and that the unjust war the north had waged on the South was right. In truth, our nation is not indivisible. We were not one nation from 1861 to 1865. We were at least two and thats not to count the indian nations. I dont say the pledge, because claiming that the nation is indivisible is a delusional lie. "Under God" was the only good part of the pledge.

The problem that we're having in the courts is not from our government trying to establish or eliminate religion. The problem is socialism. What we should be crying out against is government schools, not pledges.

[CyberCowboy777]

"What we should be crying out against is government schools"

Amen to that!

"CA School District Forces 7th Graders to 'become
Muslims' for Three Weeks"

http://www.thomasmore.org/inde x.cfm?location=5&subsectio nid=1&PageID=1&release =136

--> From the above press release: "This is unbelievable.
While public schools prohibit Christian students from
reading the Bible, praying, displaying the Ten
Commandments, and even mentioning the word 'God',
students in California are being indoctrinated into
the religion of Islam. Public schools would never
tolerate teaching Christianity in this way. Just
imagine the ACLU's outcry if students were told that
they had to pray the Lords Prayer, memorize the Ten
Commandments, use such phrases as 'Jesus is the Messiah,'
and fast during Lent."

[Violette]

The pledge was originally written and accepted without "Under God" for over 50 years. The Congress had no business changing it. And if they could put it in then they can remove it. If it was constitutional to add it, it's constitutional to remove it.

[tahiti]

Hello doryfunk.

You stated correctly, the following:

"It guarantees that Congress(the subject of the sentence) shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

So the question before the Ninth circuit court is: Did the 1954 law, that Congress enacted to add "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance, have the effect of "respecting the establishment of a religion?"

Why did the original Pledge not contain that phrase? Did the original authors think that the phrase "under God" may have been unconstitutional?

Is there a "law" requiring the recital of the Pledge on public property, such as a public school?

Is the meaning of the word "God" peculiar to just Christian and Jews?

Or is it a "generic" term for the higher being in all religions?