On Friday, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed its
ruling that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools
with the phrase “under God” intact is unconstitutional.
The case will likely be heard by the Supreme Court later this year
and has already created an outcry from image-conscious politicians.
After the court’s initial decision, senators voted 99-0 to
pass a resolution supporting the pledge with the phrase
“under God” intact. President Bush denounced the ruling
as “out of step with the traditions and history of
America.”
But it’s not the 9th Circuit Court that is out of step
with America’s history; it is the politicians who are out of
touch. By blindly supporting the pledge, politicians are neglecting
the basic foundations of religious freedom and separation of church
and state.
The first clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
clearly states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion.” The reason that clause exists is
because our Founding Fathers knew that when religion and state
combine, the result is a government that overtly makes moral
decisions and decides right and wrong based on influence by
religious figures. Granted, the Founding Fathers were Christian and
the public subsequently persecuted some religious sects, but the
United States has matured enough to generally recognize the clause
should include all religions.
The pledge blatantly supports monotheism and the belief in some
higher power. Since millions of Americans are atheists or
polytheists or don’t call the entity they worship
“God,” the pledge opposes their personal religious
beliefs and amounts to the government pushing a phrase conceived by
a Christian president. “Under God” was inserted by
President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954 to galvanize the nation
against “godless communism.”
Even before the phrase “under God” was inserted in
the 1940s, the practice of forcing children to recite the pledge
was outlawed when some schools expelled Jehovah’s
Witnesses’ children for refusing to salute the flag with the
pledge. But the pledge’s recitation in classrooms full of
impressionable youths is a frighteningly totalitarian practice for
a country that prides itself on freedom of ideas.
Americans should not be urged by their government to support one
ideology over another, or even to be patriotic. Americans should
have the freedom to be as devoted to or neglectful of patriotic
interests as they please. Arguments that the pledge has traditional
value hold no constitutional rationale: school segregation was part
of the “American tradition,” too, until its repeal.
As such, though the pledge with “under God” is
unconstitutional, the pledge should be eliminated as a teacher-led
practice from public schools altogether.
Some argue that the establishment clause calls for a separation
of church and state, but not for a seemingly absolutist divide
which prohibits muttering “under God” in school.
Religious beliefs, however, are still components of “the
church” ““ and what’s more, they have no pressing
need to be in a classroom in the first place. The opposition has
yet to show what harm would come about by children not pledging
allegiance every morning.
Ending the pledge in schools would not totally ban religion from
public institutions, as some might argue. As obscenity has
limitations in the public sphere but is given more leeway in
academic pursuits, banning “under God” does not equate
to banning religious studies from public universities. Common-sense
individuals will realize the difference.
God does not belong in the public classroom, and neither does a
pledge to America. Children should be taught to question the
government intelligently, rather than pledge allegiance like a herd
of cattle.