Dear Sirs: I would like to reply to a recently featured editorial on the Pledge Of Allegiance controversy, which was authored by a staff writer who sequenced through the ACLU’s “talking points”, in a long argumentation designed to attempt to prove that the phrase “under God” is a government establishment of religion.
Amusingly, the ACLU attempts to portray the origin of the Pledge Of Allegiance as if the Pledge was a sacred, deity-inspired document. Sorry, but Francis Bellamy is not Moses, and the Pledge of Allegiance is not the Ten Commandments. Thus, Bellamy’s biography and Bellamy’s personal philosophy are irrelevant.
Bellamy just so happened to pen a brief statement of patriotism which other American citizens decided to adopt as a common expression of their own patriotism. Over the years, the American citizenry made revisions as they saw fit. Eventually, Congress formally adopted the Pledge in 1942, and Congress also saw fit to later revise the Pledge by adding the phrase “under God” in 1954.
From the time that the Pledge was first published in 1892, there have always been those who objected to its recitation. First, there were anarchists and other political “Cults of One” and “Cults of 100” who objected to expressing their loyalty to the American form of government. Later, in 1935, the Cult of Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to join in reciting the Pledge because they believe the American government is a partner with Satan in his universal rebellion against “Jehovah”.
The SCOTUS ruled in 1943 that no schoolchild could be forced to recite the Pledge, thus protecting the constitutional right of Jehovah’s Witnesses to be as loony as they wish with their religious doctrines. That same 1943 SCOTUS ruling still protects any person who does not wish to recite the Pledge.
Today, atheists, agnostics, the ACLU, and other various “Cults of One” and “Cults of 100” again wish to impose their “godless” beliefs on the overwhelming majority of Americans. I refuse to dignify their argument, that including “under God” in the Pledge is “government establishing a religion”, with a rebuttal. If a person believes that, they need more help than I can provide.
Common sense dictates that if the phrase “under God” offends someone otherwise wishing to recite the Pledge, then all that person has to do is simply take a breath during that one-second part of the recitation.
Thanks.
Mark Jasper