The Pledge

I've had almost 24 hours to think about it, but I still don't know how I feel about the 9th District Appeals Court desicion that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional on its own. On one hand, I agree that separation of church and state implies that the government can't promote one religion over others, or require anyone to profess a belief in any religion.. That's basic. On the other hand, I sort of think that protesting a phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance is kind of nit-picky, especially considering that requiring students say the pledge was found to be unconstituional before the phrase, "Under God" was added by Congress in 1954.

I may think that the complaint over "Under God" is a small one because I was raised Catholic and that just feels natural to me, even though I'm not the most regular chruch attendee on the planet. Some days I'm not sure what I believe about the existnce of God, or what God would want if he/she/it is out therem, but that's a discussion for another time.

I was certain, until this morning that this shouldn't be a Federal issue. After all, everything I've ever read or discussed says that the point of the Constitutional separation of church and state was so that the federal government could not create a state religion for the entire country. This at least implies that state and local governments could promote religion based on the wishes of their constituents. For me this is also a sticky issue. I personally don't think any government should be legislating religion, but being a Jeffersonian Democrat at heart, I sort of figure that people should live under rules of their own choosing.

And then I started reading some commentaryn this morning. It seems that the US Congress added "Under God" to the Pledge in 1954 to separate us from the "godless" Soviets. Well, I guess because Congress stuck it in there, that makes a federal issue, and even under a pretty liberal (with a small "L") interpretation, that means Congress is holding up one religious belief above others. Bummer.

I have no problem with simply pulling the controversial phrase out of the Pledge, just like I had no problems making the Pledge when I was in school, but I also see quite a few problems that could result from this case. Like it, or not, the concept of God, in the Judeo-Christian sense, appears in a lot of places of our government. "In God We Trust" is on all of our money, the Supreme Court opens sessions with "God save the United States and this honorable court", we have a national Christmas tree at the White House.The Declaration of Independence, while not an offical part of our government is chock full of references to God, the Creator, and Divine Providence.

The whole thing is a slippery slope. And I have no idea what the right answer is. Having "Under God" in the Pledge is likely to be insulting to Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Shintos, Native Americans, agnostics, aetheists, pagans, Wiccans, Zoroatrians, and others, and should probably be removed. But once we start removing references to God, where do we stop? Do we go whole hog, and slash and burn all references to a Supreme Being, or just stop at the Pledge, an say, "This is where we come from. The US Government doesn't espouse any religion, but this is our heritage."

Maybe wiser people than I will come up with a solution.