Originally posted by: NightFlyerGTI
Is nobody here religious, or believes that this country wasn't FOUNDED with a firm stronghold in The Faith of God? I can't believe most of you are in favor of this crap. :| The insertion of "under God" was NOT a 'political hack'- you guys make me sick. If we're not a Nation under God, who are we as a Nation 'under'? Politically correct bastards from California (not surprised where this ruling came from) who are trying to undermine our history and tradition? I'm not. Adding "under God" to the allegiance was the right thing to do, although adding "under Jesus Christ" would probably have gone too far, even though I personally wouldn't have a problem with it. Despite what you hear on the biased, brainwashing Clinton News Network, this Nation does not side as a whole with extremist left-wingers from the west coast, which is what Ted Turner's wet dreams would like for you to believe. I can't wait to read the articles and hear the interviews of the backlash from the Right in the coming days on this. :frown:
This is changing the traditional beliefs of America to favor a wider range of people, which I'm not in favor of. Everyone here certainly has the right to freedom of speech, but if you're going to come to my Country or keep living here, to reap the benefits and virtues it provides because of the foundations of democracy, capitalism, a Faith in God, and especially the great men and women who *fought for it* (re: all very serious things), you're damn sure going to at least deal with our beliefs and traditions, without so much as a mouse fart from protestors. This isn't about going on strike for better working conditions in a factory, or to seek worker's comp from a mis-managed corporation who screwed your retirement plans or 401k, this is the foundation of what makes it all exist in the first place- The United States of America. If I moved to Karachi, I certainly wouldn't try to raise a ruckus in the streets to change policy, with even a thousand like-minded individuals, who severely under-number the citizens of that city and country who have been following the same beliefs and traditions for ('x' years; honestly don't know how long Pakistan has been under their current form of government) and favor otherwise.
My Pledge of Allegiance will go unchanged.
Where in the Constitution is "faith in god" expressed?
Think about the "Christian America" myth for a moment: If America was truly founded as an explicitly Christian nation (as is continually proclaimed by "Christian" activists such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson, D. James Kennedy, Chuck Colson, Tim and Beverly LaHaye, Jerry Falwell, Bill Gothard, etc.), then why do we find no mention whatsoever of Jesus, Christ, Christian or Bible in America's founding documents? --not in the Declaration of Independence nor in the Constitution of the United States. In fact, the Constitution does not even make a single reference to any "god." And the reference to a "creator" in the Declaration of Independence is merely an ambiguous "creator," a "Creator" that is vague and subordinated to natural laws that everyone should know through common sense, i.e., "self-evident" truths. (This fits when one realizes that it's author was a Deist, not a Christian.) Moreover, the Bible, Jesus, or Christianity is never mentioned nor alluded to in either document. Nor is God, Jesus, Christ, Bible or Christianity mentioned in the hundreds of pages of the Federalist Papers (the "working documents" of the Founding Fathers). Strange stuff for a nation that some like to say was founded as "Christian." But myths die hard, if ever.
"The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion"
(Treaty with Tripoli, 1797. Presented by President and Founding Father John Adams, and ratified unanimously by Congress.)
"No religious Test shall ever be required as a qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States"
(U. S. Constitution, 1787, Art. 6, Sec. 3).
"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus, building a wall of separation between Church and State"
(Thomas Jefferson, 1802, letter to Danbury Baptist Association).
"The civil government functions with complete success by the total separation of the Church from the State"
(James Madison [author of the first amendment], 1819, Writings, 8:432).
"Every new & successful example therefore of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance"
(James Madison, 1822, Writings, 9:101).
"Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history"
(James Madison, undated, William and Mary Quarterly, 1946, 3:555).
"And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Govt (sic) will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
(James Madison, letter to Edward Livingston, 1822)