‘Under God’ Thoughts

John R. Houk
© March 14, 2010

On my Facebook page I posted a video that I also posted at several of my blogs. The video was comedian Red Skelton providing a serious moment about the Pledge of Allegiance and the words “Under God.” The end of the video indicated Red's displeasure with prayer being taken out of schools.

A Facebook surfer (Nicholas Negelein) took umbrage with the religious connotation in Red’s message and posted this comment:

The pledge of allegiance, written by Francis Bellamy - a Christian Socialist who felt that the two ideas were mutually intertwined - as an expression that the greater good is more important than the individual need. Despite being a Christian, he did not include any words relating to a higher being, intending the pledge as a unification device for ... See Moreall peoples, regardless of faith or lack thereof.

"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

I responded:

Nicholas then it is a good thing that Congress in a rare moment of Founding Father insight added "Under God."

Nicholas responded:

"If the founding fathers thought anything like a pledge of allegiance were necessary, they would have implemented it, I believe. If they felt it necessary for the word god to be included in the Constitution, they would have included it, I believe.


In a moment of Founding Father insight, the Founding Fathers left any mention of the word god out of the Constitution, because for any religion to be endorsed by the state automatically removes religious freedom from the state.

For the populace to be able to freely practice any religion, the government must be kept free of religion. My Flying Spaghetti Monster must be no more important than your god in the eyes of government, lest my religion become favored and yours discriminated against. It pains me to say this, as it is manifestly obvious which creation myth is true, however I feel that simply because your religion is misguided while mine is the one true religion, you should still be allowed to practice it without interference from the government and without constantly seeing his noodly appendages adorned across the currency of the nation."

As you can guess I found Nicholas’ premises to be flawed. Thus I responded with some brief reality but by no means exhaustive. In fact I suspect Nicholas will again respond with some revisionist history in a not so nice way. I could be mistaken, time will tell. In the mean time the following is the gist of my response.

Nicholas, Actually Founding Fathers’ documents are rife with references to God or Creator. The chief Deist Jefferson worded most of the Declaration of Independence:

"the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitled"

"all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights"

Then the First Amendment clause that too many Leftists and atheists forget:

“prohibiting the free exercise thereof (i.e. religion)”

The first clause about not establishing a State Church of the Federal government is modified by the clause that overtly proclaims the Federal government will not interfere in the free exercise of religion. It is evident there is NO reference of separating religion from government but rather keeping government out of religion.

Then there is Amendment 10:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

This Amendment allowed former colonies that became States to continue with State Established Churches until each individual States ultimately discontinued the State established Churches. Indeed, Christianity was a part of public and community life in individuals until a 1947 slim Supreme Court decision (Everson v. Board of Education) ended the right of States to decide for them self what is allowable between taxpayer supported institutions and religion.

Thus it is self-evident the Founding Fathers indeed not only had a great regard for religion but specifically the Christian religion in all its sectarian or denominational practices.

Your flying spaghetti monster has no ethical benefit to the moral good of the people which is to say the citizens of America. The Founding Fathers (including the Deists) thus utilized Christian morality as the foundation for America’s rule of law which does have ethical benefit to the moral good of the people.

Go to the link to read quotes on religion from noted religious and Deist Founding Fathers: http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=63.

Atheists and Leftists are thus badly mistaken if they believe the Original Intent of the Founding Fathers was to prevent religious activism of people that benefits the government and society at large.

JRH 4/14/10