Reply #24: Here's a suggestion... [View All]

[regnaD kciN]

The last time a court overturned the pledge on those grounds (and we got the predictable Religious Reich outrage), I had the following letter published in the Seattle Times:

As a practising Christian, I have the following reaction to the court's declaring the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because it mentioned "One nation, under God":

Thank heaven! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

That phrase has been a lie since it was inserted in the Pledge in 1954. We were not then, nor are now, a nation dedicated to my (or, as far as I know, any other) God. No, the ultimate concern of the U.S.A. has been for very worldly matters such as wealth, power, and prestige. Religion is worth trotting out to make ourselves feel "holy," or to use as a club to bash "those evil awful people over there" such as gays, liberals, etc. But mention any more-difficult aspects of religious belief, such as caring for the poor or doing good to one's enemies, and we quickly discover the virtues of separation of church and state.

I can think of an easy way to rehabilitate the Pledge of Allegiance, one that only involves adding one additional letter: Change the phrasing to read "One nation, under gold." Not only would that pass constitutional muster, it would also meet the standards of "truth in advertising."

:evilgrin: