"Under God" in the pledge? Last spring, a California court ruled that mentioning God in the Pledge of Allegiance violates the constitution. What do you think? (opinion).

YES In 1954, when the words "under God" were added to the Pledge of Allegiance, the threat of Communism was a reality, and those words were seen as a positive, unifying statement against practices that threatened our valued democratic principles. The same is true today, which is why the words should remain in the collective national statement.

Now that America has faced homeland terrorism, the phrase "under God" has become increasingly poignant to our nation. Is it a coincidence that most public speeches since Sept. 11, 2001, have concluded with the words "God Bless America"? The vast majority of Americans believe in some form of God, so the presence of "God" in public statements is a unifying force. To discount these words is to discount America's unity. They do not stand for a specific God, rather for a generic God to whom believers of all faiths can relate.

Though the majority of American citizens do, in fact, participate in some form of organized religion, there is nothing dictating that an individual must declare "under God" while pronouncing the Pledge of Allegiance. Any American who is offended by the reference to a deity (or any other wording within the pledge) has the expressed right, under a 1943 Supreme Court ruling, not to participate in its recitation.

Congress has rarely acted more quickly and decisively than when this issue was brought before it. Postponing debate on a defense bill, the Senate voted 99 to 0 to express its immediate disapproval of the California court's decision to strike "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. Given the unanimity of our nation's Senators on this issue, removing the words "under God" from the pledge would obviously cause more harm than good.

--ELIZABETH OSWALD, 17
Atlanta, Georgia

No The words "under God" should be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance because, as the pledge is written now, it does not allow nonbelievers or believers in a different deity their proper and deserved freedom of belief.

There is a widely held belief that Americans who do not believe in God are arrogant intellectuals who consider themselves too intelligent to submit to a higher authority and, therefore, feel it necessary to criticize and disrespect our country. But this is a blatant case of unfair stereotyping.

It is possible to not believe in God but still love and respect one's country deeply. But what happens when these individuals are forced, in school, by uttering the words "under God," to acknowledge the existence of a God they firmly believe doesn't exist? They have to either go against their principles or disrespect their beloved country by simply skipping those words, or even the whole pledge.

This applies to believers in a different divinity as well. It is easy for those two little words to cause a frustrating contradiction of loyalties, going against the principle of freedom of belief, one of the principles upon which this country was founded.

The original pledge, written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, did not include the words "under God." It was only in 1954, at the height of Cold War tensions, that Congress approved the addition of the words. It was mainly to highlight "one of the real fundamental differences between the free world and the Communist world, namely belief in God," according to Homer Ferguson, a Michigan Senator at the time. The words "under God" are no longer necessary, as the Cold War ended over a decade ago and Americans no longer need to be reminded of our differences from the old Soviet Union. In fact, a majority of us never did.

--ALEX MARTIN, 17
Washington, D.C.