The Gamut

The following letter appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Saturday:

Keep God in pledge

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton, who declared that the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional because it says "one nation under God" should be ashamed of himself (" 'Pledge' in Legal Trouble," Sept. 15). Pretty soon they'll take "so help you God" from the oath when a person swears on a Bible that he or she is to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.


MARY ANN LUKASZEWICZ
Troy Hill

Right, and then they'll stop having public executions, and they'll take the stockades from in front of the courthouses. Oh, wait. They already did that. And they also removed the REQUIREMENT that one say "So help me God" when taking oaths. Or to be more specific, there never was one.

The US Constitution specifically prohibits religious tests. Swearing oaths to God has ever been optional. During my recent divorce, I watched my wife swear to God that the evidence she was about to give was truthful, and when my turn came I asked if I might simply affirm that I was going to tell the truth, and that's what I did.

The simple fact is that the 9th circuit court judge was absolutely correct in his finding. When it came before the SCOTUS, they chickened out and dodged the question by hiding behind the "fact" that Newdow had no legal standing to bring the case on behalf of his daughter, but they never actually decided the case on merit.

Let's look at those merits, shall we? The first amendment states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...

But in 1954, in order to appease a right-wing lobby that wanted to seperate the God-fearing US from the atheistic heathens of the USSR, Congress officially added the words "under God" TO the pledge. God is a monotheistic concept and thereby Congress passed an ipso facto law establishing monotheism as the recognized US religion. This - in the simplest possible terms - was Congress doing that which the first amendment to the US Constitution specifically bars them from doing, and was therefore by definition unConstitutional.

Next step, having the words, "In God We Trust," removed from the coin of the realm. I mean seriously, WWJD?