Legal-Courts

'Under God' upheld again

Bob Kellogg (OneNewsNow.com)
Wednesday, October 31, 2012





The Massachusetts Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving the right of students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools across the state.

Superior Court Judge Jane Haggerty has already ruled against the American Humanist Association, saying that the Pledge does not violate the state's constitution, regardless of the phrase "under God." Diana Verm of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is defending the families who are fighting to keep it in the schools.

"Judge Haggerty ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance is a voluntary, civic exercise that doesn't discriminate against anyone, and [the American Humanist Association is] hoping that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will disagree with her," Verm details. "But that would be going against every other court that's reviewed the Pledge of Allegiance."

She notes that while members of the Association have a right to remain silent during the recitation, they do not have the right to silence everyone else.

"I just think this case is fundamentally about whether people with very different worldviews can live together in peace without suing each other to try to silence each other," the attorney offers. "And our tradition of rights has said that no one has to profess anything that they don't believe."

This case is the fourth major lawsuit attempting to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge. So far, The Becket Fund has successfully defended the phrase in all cases.



http://www.onenewsnow.com/legal-courts/2012/10/31/under-god-upheld-again

Amen!

under god is a biased term, people and their middle east religions and I'm not talking about Muslims!!!

When Hitler youth were all made to stand in their class rooms and salute Hitler I suppose that was also voluntary. And they did it proudly.

After all, they are children. They(usually) do as they are told.

(Note the boy on the far right. He is not raising his hand. There are a few others who are not doing it in this picture.)

Our youth are being indoctrinated daily into a soviet-styled alligence.
Hitler was a man!
Men are raising themselves above all that is holy and sacred on this earth.

"Choose this day whom YOU will serve,

as for me and my house..."

The issue I have with the public pledge of allegiance is about pledging allegiance to what I feel is now a very corrupt global criminal cabal. It has nothing to do with God.

I also approve of the removal of the "under god" from that pledge because I would not assume to get "god" involved with a corrupt global criminal corporate cabal.

God should be personal, not tied up with government or politics.

I agree with keeping prayer and pledges out of the public arena. Pray to God and make your pledges in private ceremonies. Don't spring them on an unknown audience as some expected ritual that will single a person out for not being compliant if they don't want to participate.

In other words, pray in church or in private, not as a public ritual.

According to some Biblical prophecies and even today's secular prognosticators/forcasters,
YOU will someday be forced to choose your allegiance
to a more evil system than the American system
which many of you feel is corrupt beyond repair.

"...as for me and my house..."

Patriots, aka, homegrown terrorists, pledge allegiance to the United States of America. On nation, under God.

We do not pledge allegiance to wanna'-be dicktaters.

Prayer in the public arena is what gave the American people consolation,
hope, and courage to believe we could survive as a nation after the FIRST 911.

It is a "Spirit" that we are strengthened by...has little do with money... and nothing to do with force.

I guess letting them recite the Pledge as originally written, without the "under g-d" phrase maybe too confusing with two groups saying different things

The Pledge of Allegiance
A Short History

by Dr. John W. Baer

Copyright 1992 by Dr. John W. Baer


Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist. In his Pledge, he is expressing the ideas of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, author of the American socialist utopian novels, Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897).

Francis Bellamy in his sermons and lectures and Edward Bellamy in his novels and articles described in detail how the middle class could create a planned economy with political, social and economic equality for all. The government would run a peace time economy similar to our present military industrial complex.

The Pledge was published in the September 8th issue of The Youth's Companion, the leading family magazine and the Reader's Digest of its day. Its owner and editor, Daniel Ford, had hired Francis in 1891 as his assistant when Francis was pressured into leaving his baptist church in Boston because of his socialist sermons. As a member of his congregation, Ford had enjoyed Francis's sermons. Ford later founded the liberal and often controversial Ford Hall Forum, located in downtown Boston.

In 1892 Francis Bellamy was also a chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education in the National Education Association. As its chairman, he prepared the program for the public schools' quadricentennial celebration for Columbus Day in 1892. He structured this public school program around a flag raising ceremony and a flag salute - his 'Pledge of Allegiance.'

His original Pledge read as follows: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag and (to*) the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.' He considered placing the word, 'equality,' in his Pledge, but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans. [ * 'to' added in October, 1892. ]

Dr. Mortimer Adler, American philosopher and last living founder of the Great Books program at Saint John's College, has analyzed these ideas in his book, The Six Great Ideas. He argues that the three great ideas of the American political tradition are 'equality, liberty and justice for all.' 'Justice' mediates between the often conflicting goals of 'liberty' and 'equality.'

In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference, under the 'leadership of the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution, changed the Pledge's words, 'my Flag,' to 'the Flag of the United States of America.' Bellamy disliked this change, but his protest was ignored.

In 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.

Bellamy's granddaughter said he also would have resented this second change. He had been pressured into leaving his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons. In his retirement in Florida, he stopped attending church because he disliked the racial bigotry he found there.

What follows is Bellamy's own account of some of the thoughts that went through his mind in August, 1892, as he picked the words of his Pledge:

It began as an intensive communing with salient points of our national history, from the Declaration of Independence onwards; with the makings of the Constitution...with the meaning of the Civil War; with the aspiration of the people...

The true reason for allegiance to the Flag is the 'republic for which it stands.' ...And what does that vast thing, the Republic mean? It is the concise political word for the Nation - the One Nation which the Civil War was fought to prove. To make that One Nation idea clear, we must specify that it is indivisible, as Webster and Lincoln used to repeat in their great speeches. And its future?

Just here arose the temptation of the historic slogan of the French Revolution which meant so much to Jefferson and his friends, 'Liberty, equality, fraternity.' No, that would be too fanciful, too many thousands of years off in realization. But we as a nation do stand square on the doctrine of liberty and justice for all...

If the Pledge's historical pattern repeats, its words will be modified during this decade. Below are two possible changes.

Some prolife advocates recite the following slightly revised Pledge: 'I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, born and unborn.'

A few liberals recite a slightly revised version of Bellamy's original Pledge: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with equality, liberty and justice for all.'

A Thankful Thanksgiving




The America we witness today has seen much sacrifice
This sacrifice for many, has meant a total giving of life for liberty
Do all truly realize what the human cost of freedom is
All citizens should understand what has kept us whole


Should it not be the duty of each American to know this
To become familiar with the reasons of why we exist today
The notion that "that’s the way things are" is ludicrous
When a firm explanation is so easily understood


We’ve survived because of faith, determination, and great sacrifice
The backbone of this country is the strength of its good citizens
Each true American is worth more than all the gold found in history
Selfishness does not rule their home, nor does it drive their thought


And don’t just look at our military as a magnificent force
Rather look at each member of our soldiered family with pride
"Ready, willing, and able" have been the finest of each generation
Whether in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, or any other place of danger


Whenever an American military presence moves into action
Behold the continuation of an outstanding tradition
Formed through freedom, it bravely faces all adversaries
And the flag under which it stands will always fly in freedom


We are and always will be one nation under God
He is the strength we have turned to time and time again
If we did not have Him, we would have perished long ago
God Bless America is more than a song, it is our national prayer


Finally, I wish each fine American a thankful Thanksgiving Day
May you truly realize what we are, and pray to Almighty God for continuation
Be ever thankful for our Armed Forces, and give them the total support they need
And please pray for all American families who have paid the price for freedom




©2002,2005Roger J. Robicheau

Then you don't have to say it.

An opinion I disagree with.



Prayer in the public arena is an assumption that the public are all Christians.

News flash... they are not.

So how would you feel if a public arena conducted a prayer thanking Lucifer the light giver, or the flying spaghetti monster, or the goddess Bast or some other God?

So, you are suggesting an elimination of freedom of speech in a public area.

Go figure.

Pledges of allegiance and Prayers should not be conducted publicly to an unknown audience.

Hence the reason for a moment of silence instead.

No. Not at all. Do you not understand the difference?

When someone gets up in front of a group and asks everyone to bow their heads in prayer they are conducting a public prayer.

Let them pray in the crowd, but not as the speaker before the crowd conducting an audience.

If that guy wants to pray let him pray on his own but do not give him the floor in front of an unknown audience of people who may not be of the same religious background as he assumes.

Understand?

It is a public ritual ceremony for a particular belief that may not be shared by the audience.

Do you really believe that it does any good to preach at people like this?

I don't buy into Biblical prophecies or today's secular prognosticators or forecasters.

I know that in the past bullies did force some people to choose their allegiance to a god or system including the Christian religions and crusades.

"Convert or die!" Was told to many Jews and American Indians.

Some converted, many died.

But I am counting on people to be more accepting of others and more enlightened now and in the future. I have faith in that.