Fr.Andrew

The march is <a href="http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/7/262002a.asp" target="_blank">on</a> to force religion on us by amending the Constitution to "protect" the Pledge of Allegiance.
Just what it is that an amendment will protect the Pledge against is unclear, but there's a handful of extremely ignorant Congressmen* pushing it, and a whole slew of sheep jumping on the bandwagon--lest they be branded un-American. Or, worse--anti-God.
The main sponsor of the bill is a young fellow from Mississippi named Pickering. I can't believe that he's not related in some way to the Mississippi judge who was rejected for a federal bench a few months ago over his extreme views. I'll bet they're father and son.

The Christian fundamentalists are behind this, of course. Terrorism has opened a door for them that was previously inaccessible...and they're primed to take advantage of the situation. Long have the Bible-thumpers sought to inject God into our Constitution in defiance of the founder's intent...this is their big chance.
They've got as malleable a group of Congressional Democrats as they could hope for, a President who gives lip service to "born-againism", an Attorney General who is annointed with Crisco Oil when he gets a promotion, a Supreme-Court-in-waiting capable of setting Civil Rights back 50 years and a civilian population either a) instilled with a jingoism not seen since WWII or b) absolutely petrified to question authority for fear of being labeled "subversive".
How can this lose?

* "Pennsylvania Republican Joe Pitts...said the purpose is obvious. "This amendment," he said, "will clarify the constitution and will re-establish it's original meaning and intent, at least, as far as the Pledge and the motto go.""
(Fr Andrew): Mr Pitts is ignorant of the fact that there is no mention of a pledge or a motto in the Constitution. He doesn't know, probably, that our first national motto was "E pluribus unum" ("Out of many, one")...and he probably doesn't know that there was no pledge until the first part of the 20th Century and that the words "under God" weren't added until 50 years later.

* "Republican Robin Hayes of North Carolina declared...Our founding fathers knew what they were doing when they established this country on Christian principles."
(Fr Andrew): Mr Hayes is apparently unaware that the &lt;I&gt;only official word on the subject&lt;/I&gt;--the Treaty of Tripoli, signed by President John Adams in 1797--opens Article 11 with these words:
"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion..."
[Tidbit: The Secretary of State under Adams at that time, who endorsed the treaty and sent it on to the President for his signature--was one Timothy Pickering!
Small world.]

* "...Governor Gray Davis of California...said "the pledge is not a prayer or religious exercise -- but rather, a vocal expression of patriotism and duty."
(Fr Andrew): So tell me, Gray--why do we need to inject God into that? Can't someone be patriotic and dutiful without being religious? The founders seemed to think that they could...they flatly refused a religious oath as a requirement to hold public office.

Once He's in there...once God is an official part of our Constitution, it'll be impossible to get Him out...so I ask everyone to write their Congressional representation and ask them to reject this amendment which, for the first time, would inject God into our Constitution.
It's un-American, and it's a divisive waste of time and money at a time when we need to be pulling together.

Toto

Grey Davis is a political panderer of the first order (i.e. a successful politician.) He is moving to have the Ninth Circuit reverse the pledge ruling so his opponent in the upcoming California gubernatorial election, conservative Christian Bill Simon, can't use the issue to bash him. I don't see him advocating a constitutional amendment, and I suspect this issue will die down after November (unless it turns out to be a big money raiser.)

Oh - and welcome to the Infidel boards, Father Andrew. Are you an evangelical Agnostic-Naturalist?

CaptainDave

This proposed constitutional amendment is OUTRAGEOUS! It's going to take an unprecedanted unified front on our part to stop it. We ALL need to deluge our representatives with (written)letters but it will take more than that. We need to start organizing protest marches across the nation to show our numbers and our outrage. It'll be a lot easier to defeat a proposed constitutional amendment than repeal an existing one.

Now might be a good time to donate to the ACLU and PFTAW!

Alonzo Fyfe

The best strategy for defeating such a maneuver is through majority opposition to the amendment in 17 states.

In order to do that, it is necessary to organize and focus effort on the local level.

One important priority is that the campaign to defeat the amendment must be conducted in such a way that at least 40% of those who believe in God are nonetheless willing to oppose the amendment. It will not be possible to win such a campaign by saying how bad religion is or to defeat it as an atheist cause. It must be fought on a broader front with more general popular appeal.

Ultimately, though, I think the greatest barrier to this will come from outside of the United States -- mostly, from Muslim countries -- where propagandists will see such an amendment as hypocritical. For foreign policy reasons, the political leadership might not let this one even get off the table.

That's not to prevent some members of congress from using this as an excuse to make a few favorable speeches aimed at their favorite constituents.

[ July 30, 2002: Message edited by: Alonzo Fyfe ]</p>

Fr.Andrew

Hello, Toto, and thank you for the welcome. I've been lurking for years--this place is a good resource.
And thanks for the bit re: Gray Davis' political foresight. That makes a lot of sense.


I'm not so evangelical as I once was.

Buffman

Fr. Andrew

Welcome from one former Maine-iac to a current one. Glad to see you jumping into the lobster pen.
Aaiiyah! Yes I am.

lpetrich

One ought to think of some theological reason to reject "under God", something that will make it seem anti-God, something like taking God's name in vain.

Alonzo Fyfe

Such as:

A major principle of Christian ethics is to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

First, ask yourself whether you would have others impose a pledge of allegiance on you that says, "I, who do not believe in any God, pledge allegiance to the flag..." -- even allowing that you would not have to say the Pledge, you live in a country where this is the only official pledge and it is largely assumed that your children will join the rest of the class in giving such a pledge every morning.

If you would not be willing to have others do such a thing unto you, how do you justify -- according to Christian ethics, doing unto them?

4th Generation Atheist

Another problem we have is the number of people who see it as a trivial issue, who don't think twice about it; and the fact that Mr. Newdow has been "marginalized" by the media doesn't help.

The actions must be taken on both a national and a local level. Write to Congress for the national level, and don't forget this might be a decent focus fo a group in the "Godless Americans" march, which as has been pointed out needs a mainstream focus. On a local level, mainstream nontheists are gonna have to come out. Reaching out to "allies"---in this case, mostly liberal theists and even some theists who aren't so liberal but might fear marginalization themselves---in a manner analogous to what has been done by the gay movement, is also helpful. Remind people that friends, family and coworkers whom they know are decent people are affected by public opinion concerning who is "patriotic". That too is basically the move the gay community made to get this country's too-quiet liberal and middle majority behind them. As long as we look like a contentious minority who files nuisance lawsuits, no one is going to give a rip about what angers us or makes us feel endangered.

[ July 31, 2002: Message edited by: 4th Generation Atheist ]</p>

god-free-pen

I once saw a cartoon with Uncle Sam spread-eagled on the floor with an enormous bearded "God" figure sprawled on top of him, as in:

"Under.r.r.r. God"