Posted on 07/07/2002 8:27:12 AM PDT by chunjay
Should Christians be upset by court's decision on Pledge of Allegiance?
http://www.razormouth.com/cgi-local/npublisher/viewnews.cgi?category=all&id=1025337683
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You must be living under a rock if you havent heard the news. Two pin-head federal judges said that mentioning God in the Pledge of Allegiance violated the First Amendment rights of second-graders (more correctly, one second-graders parent). The pin-head label came from the Rev. Jerry Falwell. He also called them Dumb and Dumberof course he meant that with love. Something must be wrong with me. The news didnt shock me, surprise me, worry me, anger me, or cause me to cry. Im wondering why it caused such a stir?
The ruling of the three-judge panel, according to legal experts left and right, is almost guaranteed to be overturnedeither by a full panel from the circuit court or the Supreme Court.
If you were worried that the media had become Godless, the news coverage shouldve set your mind at ease. All the national TV news-show hosts and all but two of their professional guests decried or mocked the decision.
And in a display of tremendous political courage, Congress convened on the steps of the Capitol to recite the pledge and members stepped up to the microphones to tell the media how outraged they were. So whats the problem? It sounds like its already solved.
But is it really a good thing if this court decision is overturned? Any time you find yourself in agreement with more than 400 congressmen and the majority of the major media, you better double-check your premises!
In 1962, the Supreme Court told public schools that prayer was banned. Since then, indignant Christians have fought for a constitutional amendment and through the courts to restore that right. Forty years later, they have little to show for those efforts.
Right around the same time, parochial schools experienced a renaissance. Christian schools sprung up like weeds all over the countryside. If the schools were going to separate God from their kids, then these responsible parents were going to separate their children from the government schools.
Im a product of that movement. My parents made the decision to switch me from a public to a Christian school in third gradeIm glad they did. Now Im a home-schooling parent, because I believe my childrens education is my responsibility.
Please understand that even the big-government liberals (in Congress and the media) dont like this decision because they believed it was too boldtoo much ado over a very little innocuous thing. The decision was overreaching, and it couldve sounded a well-overdue second alarm for those few Christian parents whove refused to accept the truth up to this pointeducation and religion (for lack of a better term), cannot be separated. This decision couldve added the necessary fuel to the fire needed to separate school and state.
Joseph Farah, publisher of WorldNetDaily, put it this way, If responsible Christian and Jewish parents did this [took their children out of government schools] all over America tomorrow, it would set off a revolution in this country. Gone would be the multi-billion-dollar Department of Education boondoggle. Gone would be the condom education. Gone would be the sexual propaganda and the moral relativism. No way tens of millions of parents are going to continue to be soaked in taxes for schools they don't use. Not only will your children be liberated, the whole country would be. It will be like the collapse of the Soviet Unionhundreds of millions of people freed overnight.
Instead, the decision will be overturned, victory will be declared, and those Christian parents who insist on deluding themselves about the wonders of public education will remain where they are.
The government education factory will continue to teach those children all kinds of things that are alien to most Christian values in areas like the origin of man, sexuality, and especially the environmentbut theyll say the Pledge of Allegiance correctly!
Government schools will continue to endorse pantheism, teach secular humanism, and instruct students in post-modern thinking, even going so far as to directly challenge them to question the things their parents and churches teach them. And then theyll pass them to the fifth grade!
Studies indicate that 94 percent of the country believes theres a God, 84 percent believe in Jesus Christ, and 80 percent support voluntary prayer in school. Is it reasonable for Christians to expect any higher numbers? Do Christians need to continue fighting for 40 more years to make government schools right, or should they learn their lesson and withdraw their support?
Besides, in this case, whats there to fight for? Now I know for some Im about to engage in great sacrilegebut whats so great about the Pledge of Allegiance anyway?
Who else, but to God do we, as Christians, owe allegiance? Should we swear allegiance to a plot of land or the state that controls it (Exodus 20:3-5, Matthew 5:33-35)? (In our country, doesnt the state owe its allegiance to the people, rather than the other way around?)
The pledge was created in 1892 by a socialist named Francis Bellamy as a way to begin indoctrination of children into utopian ways. At the time, Bellamy was a high-ranking official in the National Education Association (NEA) who had recently been forced from his pulpit as a Baptist minister.
The words that caused all the controversyunder God werent in Bellamys original. They were added by Congress in 1954 to provide contrast between the United States and godless communism. Bellamys granddaughter said he wouldve resented the change.
And in the post-decision analysis Wednesday, constitutional scholars like Douglas Kmiec, Jonathan Turley, and others indicated that the Pledge didnt establish, any particular religion. Rather, they advised, it upheld the tradition that we believe in some kind of a national deity. Thats the bold constitutional argument that will likely be used to restore the Pledge if this case makes it to the Supreme Court (sarcasm intended).
If under God is retained in the Pledge, will that really be much of a victory? If it makes 400 congressmen and the media happy, its probably not such a great thing. The need to separate school and state, the history and purpose of the pledge, and the lameness of the constitutional argument, lead me to believe that retaining those words is not only not worth a fight, but its also, ultimately, a loss.
Originally the word liberal meant social conservatives(no govt religion--none) who advocated growth and progress---mostly technological(knowledge being absolute/unchanging)based on law--reality... UNDER GOD---the nature of GOD/man/govt. does not change. These were the Classical liberals...founding fathers-PRINCIPLES---stable/SANE scientific reality/society---industrial progress...moral/social character-values(private/personal) GROWTH!
Evolution...Atheism-dehumanism---TYRANNY...
Then came the post-modern age of switch-flip-spin-DEFORMITY-cancer...Atheist secular materialists through ATHEISM/evolution CHANGED-REMOVED the foundations...demolished the wall(separation of state/religion)--trampled the TRUTH-GOD...built a satanic temple/SWAMP-MALARIA/RELIGION(cult of darwin-marx-satan) over them---made these absolutes subordinate--relative and calling all the residuals---technology/science === evolution to substantiate/justify their efforts--claims...social engineering--PC--atheism...anti-God/Truth RELIGION--crusade/WAR--JIHAD--INTOLERANCE/TYRANNY...against God--man--society!!
Changing--morphing words-meaning-reality...
the CONSTITUTION/HISTORY...
via your 'logic-reason'---
to your fantasy-bias world-bs/IDEOLOGY---LIBERALISM/EVOLUTION...
is called psychosis!
and calling all the residuals---technology/science === evolution to substantiate/justify their efforts--claims...social engineering--PC--atheism...anti-God/Truth RELIGION--DECLARED a crusade/WAR--JIHAD--INTOLERANCE/TYRANNY...against God--man--society!!
The LEAD shield/protection between state and religion(evolution/atheism) is gone---this is chernobyl---radiation poisoning---NUCLEAR SOCIAL ANTARTICA/AMERICA!!
Presto...the liberal-evo-ATHEIST-taliban---poisoning of America!
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