I enjoy hearing from Christians who claim that encouraging public school students to stand up, place their hand over their heart, and pledge allegiance to America, "under god" does not constitute the establishment of a national religion.
The preceding is not the start of a rant calling for the removal of "under god" from the Pledge. However, I do find it funny that, according to Christians, anything short of President Obama signing into law a bill that specifically names Christianity as the official religion of the United States does not fall under the category of "establishing."
What would happen if a high-school basketball coach said to his or her players... "I'd like you all to wear Air Jordan shoes. Of course I'm not forcing you to purchase a pair of the awesome sneakers that will undoubtedly improve your game. But, if you go sans Air Jordan shoes, you're going to stick out like a sore thumb and not truly be a part of the squad."? If those were the words used by the coach, parents would throw a fit, as any rational human being understands that he or she has just established a team shoe.
Using the fact that a majority of American children come from Christian households to manipulate other children into pledging their allegiance to god is perhaps not technically establishing a religion, but it is purposeful manipulation. It's skirting the intention of our Founding Fathers via a technicality.
Most conservatives claim, "The Constitution is not a living and breathing document that needs to be reexamined as the times change; rather it should be taken literally even though its drafters could not have fathomed what kind of country America would be two-hundred years after its founding."
In order to live by the above, conservatives are forced to plot and scheme due to the fact that certain portions of the Constitution don't fit their worldview.
In other words, by their actions, conservatives say, "Since I agree with most of the Constitution, I will fight relentlessly to ensure that America doesn't stray. The parts I disagree with, however, I will fight relentlessly to pretend mean something other than what the drafters intended them to mean."
In words other than that, by their actions, conservatives say, "I choose not to focus on the actual words in the Constitution and will instead interpret any portion I reject to make it seem as if the drafter of said portion wanted exactly what I want."
If conservatives truly desired to abide by the wishes of the Founding Fathers, they would enthusiastically call for the removal of all references to god on anything produced by the United States government.
They enjoy residing in a country that doesn't force them to believe in anything specific, but because they do believe in something specific, choose to manipulate non-believers into following the same book using government run institutions.
Atheists have the reputation of being militant. In the Bible Belt; you'll hear reports of a single non-believer forcing an entire community to refrain from reciting the Lord's Prayer before football games.
Yet atheists aren't calling for children to stand up and pledge their loyalty to the belief that there is no god. Instead we simply desire, in accordance with the Constitution, that all mention of specifics be removed. Such removal would satisfy Christians, Muslims, Jews, Deists, Atheists, Mormons, Buddhists... basically the removal of specifics would cover everyone under the sun, which is exactly what the Founding Fathers intended.
"You believe that the cricket chirping by your foot is god... You believe your favorite internet blogger is god... You believe Jesus is god... You believe there is no god... You believe there is one god, but you're not sure if he or she would reveal himself or herself to earthlings... Whichever of the above scenarios you believe to be correct; you're welcome to build a church in America," the Founding Fathers declared.
Too bad Christians can't live in accordance with the wishes of the aforementioned Founding Fathers; men for whom they often profess their love. Too bad Christians purposely misinterpret the words of the Founding Fathers to make it seem as if said Founding Fathers really wanted America to be a Christian nation, only a tad less militant than the Motherland.
According to modern day Christians; the Founding Fathers wanted a country where religious leaders had the freedom to preach the gospel a bit less literally than the religious leaders in England. Perhaps they wanted to reside in a country where sneaking out of a sermon two minutes before its conclusion, so they could secure a good table at the Denny's of yore, wasn't punishable by decapitation.
According to modern day Christians; the Founding Fathers had no desire for Americans to maintain the freedom to reject a higher power altogether. Modern day Christians say, "Of course public school children can choose atheism - as long as they do so while sitting in the corner as the rest of their class joyfully praises America and the Christian God that made such a glorious nation possible."
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