In case you haven’t heard, a federal appeals court ruled today that the Pledge of Allegiance is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and cannot be recited in schools. While I see this as a mixed blessing (no pun intended) I think a more suitable decision would have been to remove “under god” from it and restore it to it’s pre McCarthy-era wording. We are not a nation under god, no matter how many people get outraged over this decision. Our founding fathers were mostly deists, believed that god no longer meddled in our lives and would therefore not be “over” us. There’s a reason “Separation of Church and State” exists.

Joan: Yes Indeed! I heard it all. We are all going to hell. The Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because of “under gawd.” Yes indeed! What’s wrong with praying in school!?
Me: Ahem, ever heard of separation of church and state?
Joan: That’s is why the world is in the state it’s in. Yes indeed.
Me: But what if you don’t believe in god? Why should you say that?
Joan: My mamma said “under god”, her mamma said ‘under god”
Me: Actually, “under god” wasn’t put in till the mid 50’s.
Joan: Yes indeed… we goin’ to hell!

The men in white wigs specifically kept religion out of our Government, off of our money, and nowhere close to our pledge. It wasn’t until much later that these were changed. (In god we trust didn’t make it to coins until 1904 – after the civil war, and god didn’t factor into our pledge and paper currency until the McCarthy scandal in the mid 50’s.)

I saying this here because no one in the office cares. By the way, we’re all going to hell now. See ya there.

While I’m glad that kids aren’t forced to recognize a god they may not believe in, I don’t mind them pledging allegiance to the flag. Hmmmm. What do you think?