One Nation Under Who?
By John B.June 26, 2002.
Christians and Conservatives are turning over in their graves following today’s ruling by a California Appeals Court declaring the Pledge of Allegiance to be unconstitutional.
Initially, I was also outraged. “Political correctness run amok!” I thought. “The damn Liberals have gone too far this time!” It would happen in Occupied San Francisco, wouldn’t it?
Then I got the rest of the story.
The California Appeals Court was right. The words “under God” do not belong in the Pledge of Allegiance.
I was in the first grade when those two words were added. We had been taught the Pledge a few months earlier, then my teacher, Mrs. Remple, explained to us that we were now expected to say “under God” between the words “one nation” and “indivisible”. That was 1954. Before that, the USA got along just fine without those two words in the Pledge.
The problem, in this case, is not one of Right Wing vs. Left or Liberal vs. Conservative. The problem is that religion and democracy don’t mix. While it may be true that many, if not most, of the founding fathers held Christian principles, it is also true that the USA was created with the intent that each citizen should be allowed to worship (or not) according to his own convictions. This included the right to be a Christian, Muslim, pagan, atheist, or anything else one chooses to be.
American Democracy permits people freedom of religion. Christianity does not.
Sometime in the middle 80s I made the statement that it was difficult for most Americans to become converted (into WCG beliefs) because they had been “brainwashed by democracy” (little did I know then who was really brainwashed!). Americans, by and large, are too protective of their personal liberties to ever surrender to the authority of a Herbert Armstrong or a Joseph Tkach. Yet millions of Americans have surrendered their hearts and minds to the false promises of mainstream Christianity and the Bible. These people would support, if it were possible, a religious dictatorship that mandated the worship of Jesus to every citizen.
As a political Conservative, I oppose political correctness on principle (PC is just one more form of mind control, perpetrated by one more form of Nazi), but I also oppose the extreme opposition who would return me to a state of religious slavery. They wouldn’t want to say “under Allah” or “under Jehovah” during the Pledge of Allegiance, so I shouldn’t have to say “under God”.
“One nation, indivisible” is just fine.
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