Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was ruled unconstitutional Wednesday by a federal judge who granted legal standing to two families represented by an atheist who lost his previous battle before the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the pledge’s reference to one nation “under God” violates school children’s right to be “free from a coercive requirement to affirm God.”
This ruling is a situation in which the reading of the constitution is taking grossly out of context. The role of the judicial system is to interpret the constitution and all other laws that we use to govern society and judge their applicability to a present situation.
The idea of the “separation of church and state” was created by the founding father in light of the religious wars that have plagued Europe for centuries before the United States of America was even an idea. The phrase, “separation of church and state” is never mentioned in the United State Constitution but comes from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson. The only reference to religion comes from the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment that states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. The intention of the separation of church and state was to ensure that the government did not support a state church or establish a national religion which could be used alienate and/or persecute a minority. The separation of church and state is related to freedom of religion, but the two concepts are different. It is incorrect to infer that countries with a state church do not necessarily have freedom of religion and vice-versa.
Coming from a strongly religious family my views on this are slightly biased. Most parents use god, as a form of checks and balances while teaching their kids what is “right” and what is “wrong”. The argument is an atheist student is forced to be in an public environment in which religion is pressed upon them. However, a student does have the right to remain silent, and not repeat the pledge. Making the recital of the pledge of the allegiance mandatory in my opinion is unconstitutional yet prohibiting the recital in a classroom setting is not the intention behind the idea of “freedom of religion”.
I am pressed to ask what is next? Will “God Bless America”, “America the Beautiful”, and even the official text of our national anthem, which has the phrase “this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust’” be eventually banned? Will the treasury be ordered to reprint new bills and coins without “In God We Trust”?
I agree with you completely and you make perfect sense out of this touch subject. I think this individual like to involve himself in controversy. Fight the power so to speak. Why is his view, small group of people, need a law? I fully feel that any “good” in our country is being removed. Scary
Are you a christian right win nut who is glued to the fox news channel? the consitution is never intpreted to a situation. it is crystal clear, on what is legal and what is not.
you probably are a person who falls asleep, dreaming of becoming o’reilys next lover aren’t you?
Yes, ‘T’, that’s exactly what I am. Take to heart that I will attempt to change my ways after reading your startlingly correct and perfectly punctuated summation of who is Ashutosh Kadakia.