God & Country

Quote of the Week: 'How I Learned to Accept "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance'

September 15, 2009 RSS Feed Print

Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

At the recent Netroots Nation convention in Pittsburgh, progressives engaged in a serious reconsideration of the meaning and reach of the Establishment Clause. A program entitled "A New Progressive Vision of Church and State" brought together a diverse group of panelists to debate a proposal (provocatively encapsulated in the subtitle of the program: "How I Learned to Accept 'Under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance and Stop Losing Elections").

—Law professor Bruce Ledewitz, writing about last month's Netroots Nation convention

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There can be no doubt about it. The pledge of allegiance is unconstitutional and it makes as much sense as the Islamic call for prayer telling people to bow down five times a day.

Marksist of AR 9:42PM September 17, 2009

One addition thought about the pledge as religious: It elevates the flag into a sacred icon. We can't have freedom of speech if children learn that a political symbol is sacred. (e.g. flag burning is a crime and one must constantly salute the flag or it's feelings will be hurt.)

A third option is that under God is actually a reference to the government as God. We pledge allegiance to the flag under control of the current government. The teachers and principal are God incarnate for children. Therefore the pledge is just political speech using religious imagery.

This interpretation allows the pledge to escape religious freedom issues but of course all those Bible-thumping flag wavers would have to re-think why they want to teach children to be facists especially when they are no longer in political power.

Ed Myers of VA 10:07AM September 17, 2009

If you are correct that "under God" means nothing, Muser, then saying those words is in vain. Therefore, it appears you are saying that when Christians say the pledge they are violating Commandment #3 ("Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.") If Christians tell us to not fret over that phrase because it means nothing, while privately telling themselves that it is ACTUALLY an expression of faith and one of spreading Judeo-Christian values, then their claim that it means nothing is a lie, i.e., in violation of the prohibition against bearing false witness.

Yeah, I agree we need health care reform. However, no health care system can prevent the republic from falling victim to the fatal illness with which your civic pride seems to be suffering. When we turn our back on fundamental rights in the constitution - i.e., that no religion will be elevated above any other - that's the beginning of the end of the Great American Experiment.

steve of PA 4:01PM September 16, 2009

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Dan Gilgoff covers religion for U.S. News & World Report. He is the author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War, and is a former politics editor at beliefnet. E-mail Dan at godandcountry@usnews.com.

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