COURT'S 'UNDER GOD' BAN PROFOUNDLY AMERICAN.Byline: SCOTT HOLLERAN Local View THE Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday refused to reconsider its ruling striking down the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance, in full, Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, oath that proclaims loyalty to the United States. and its national symbol. . They were right to do so; the court's decision is consistent with the nation's founding principles, which are casually discarded by religious conservatives and religious liberals whenever faith is imposed by the state. In the court's June 2002 decision, Judge Alfred T. Goodwin wrote: ``A profession that we are a nation 'under God' is identical ... to a profession that we are a nation 'under Jesus,' a nation 'under Vishnu,' a nation 'under Zeus,' or a nation 'under no god,' because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion.'' Judge Goodwin's explanation properly applies the Founding Fathers' radical ideas about liberty to religion. The founders, who created a nation partly to escape state-sanctioned religion, defiantly opposed the mixture of religion and government. Some doubted the existence of God, and others, including deist de·ism n. The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation. Thomas Paine, were openly hostile to religion - any religion. A brief history of the Pledge of Allegiance is also instructive. The first organized use of the Pledge of Allegiance was 110 years ago, when millions of American schoolchildren schoolchildren school npl → écoliers mpl; (at secondary school) → collégiens mpl; lycéens mpl schoolchildren school recited the following words to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of America: ``I pledge allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible INDIVISIBLE. That which cannot be separated. 2. It is important to ascertain when a consideration or a contract, is or is not indivisible. When a consideration is entire and indivisible, and it is against law, the contract is void in toto. 11 Verm. 592; 2 W. , with liberty and justice for all.'' The first National Flag Conference voted in 1923 to change ``my flag'' to ``the Flag of the United States of America UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The name of this country. The United States, now thirty-one in number, are Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, .'' Congress officially recognized the pledge in 1942, but in the following year, the Supreme Court ruled that public school students could not be forced to recite it. The words ``under God'' were added in 1954 by President Eisenhower, following a campaign conducted by the Roman Catholic Knights of Columbus Knights of Columbus, American Roman Catholic society for men, founded (1882) at New Haven, Conn. (where its headquarters are still located), by Father Michael J. McGivney. . The founders created an American republic based primarily on individual rights - a society in which the freedom of religion implicitly means freedom from religion. As founder James Madison, America's fourth president, stated: ``Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.'' America's Founding Father and third president, Thomas Jefferson - who wrote the Declaration of Independence - wrote in an 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association: ``I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people An American people may be:
That the only nation founded on the concept of individual liberty would dictate a theological concept - God - is the unequivocal establishment of religion and, as such, it is wrong. Any state sanction of religion, including inherently religious notions like God, is a violation of individual rights. On the eve On the Eve (Накануне in Russian) is the third novel by famous Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, best known for his short stories and the novel Fathers and Sons. of America's retribution against Iraq, a state that sponsors and promotes religious terrorism Religious terrorism is terrorism by those whose motivations and aims have a predominant religious character or influence[1]; to be considered religious terrorism the perpetrators must use religious scriptures to justify or explain their violent acts or to gain recruits , the court's refusal to reconsider its decision is an especially timely reminder that the Founding Fathers fought for the creation of a nation based on individual rights - which means the right to not believe in God and the right to not participate in religion. In this sense, the Ninth Court's decision is profoundly American and ought to be supported by the most devout de·vout adj. de·vout·er, de·vout·est 1. Devoted to religion or to the fulfillment of religious obligations. See Synonyms at religious. 2. Displaying reverence or piety. 3. believer. As Jefferson once said: ``It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.'' |
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