Federal Appeals Court Upholds "Under God" In Pledge of Allegiance

A three-judge panel from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, upheld the Virginia state requirement for public school children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance even though it contains the words "under God."

According to Associated Press, the judges

...ruled that the pledge is a patriotic exercise, not an affirmation of religion similar to a prayer.

"Undoubtedly, the pledge contains a religious phrase, and it is demeaning to persons of any faith to assert that the words under God contain no religious significance," Judge Karen Williams wrote. "The inclusion of those two words, however, does not alter the nature of the pledge as a patriotic activity."

The plaintiff's lawyer stated that they did not know whether they would appeal the decision or not.

Personally, I believe that this decision is well-founded and supported by the precedent of national usage, the overwhelming support of the American people and the clear right of any child to be excused from reciting the Pledge by their own request or that of their parent(s).

In any case, the word "God" is, at best, a generic term meaning little more than what the person reading or speaking it makes it out to mean.

For Islam, Allah; for Christianity, the Trinity of "Father, Son and Holy Spirit;" for Judaism, YHWH; Hinduism, the eternal divine-ness of all things; and Buddhism, the only true reality discovered in enlightenment.

For Deists, the eternal "watchmaker," and, for Unititarians....well....for Unitarians...whatever they feel they want to believe or not believe these days.

Even Atheists have a belief in God; a god they have replaced with the idea of "man as the measure of all things." The philosophy of Materialism...what the New Testament refers to as "temporal things" or the "love of money"...also has simply replaced one idea of god with another.

In the end, the "God" of the Pledge of Allegiance is really nothing more than a symbol that connects us to our founding documents and the historical discourse that determined that our equality and freedom have been "endowed" upon us in such a way that neither the vote of the people nor judicial fiat can ever take them away.

As a Christian, I am glad that the word "God" has survived this particular legal challenge. I believe that the word connects us to a national heritage and philosophy that has prevailed in our nation since before its founding. To remove it is to effectively put "blinders" on us all, forcing us to pretend that the very large elephant in the room is not really there.

In any case, the existance and authority of the God of Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus and Bird of Paradise does not depend one way or the other on whether the word "God" appears in our "Pledge of Allegiance" or not.

Among those of us who believe that we know God personally through a living faith in his living Son, Jesus Christ, it has often been proposed that a witness to the one true God would be best served if, in fact, that little word WAS removed from the Pledge.

Christianity could then reclaim the word "God" from the generic malaise in which it currently finds itself and offer it back to the world with a clearer understanding of how specific the God of the Christian Gospel truly is.

As Isaiah 46:9, 11 puts it, "I am God, and there is no other. I am God, there is none like me.....What I have said, that will I bring about. What I have promised, that will I do."

For me, that is the only God under which I will stand, regardless.