<< Back 7/3/02 Don’t forget the remainder of the pledge“One nation, under God.” SMN It rolls off the tongue and has a nice sound. But it has everything to do with those who confuse God, country and patriotism, belittling both religion and what this country stands for. In fact, episodes from this past week show an almost embarrassing posturing on this issue. What we’ve witnessed is that our leaders all-too-happily slip into grandstanding and mistake it for patriotism, and they do it with no qualms. The phrase ruled unconstitutional by a judge last week (the decision was stayed after the protests began mounting) was inserted into the pledge in response to our Cold War era fight against godless Russia. It’s completely understandable given the politics of the 1950s, this being one more weapon in our arsenal against a menacing nuclear power. But now it is causing problems for us, not anyone else. We Americans we have an unending urge to marry the concepts of God and country. We are a predominately Christian country, and so our leaders rely on their beliefs when times get tough. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, leaders who are religious, who believe in an inerrant goodness and who are truly spiritual, are most likely better equipped as humans than those who have no moral compass. The problem, though, is that we are not a Christian nation despite the efforts of some leaders to make it so. We do aspire to embody Christian ideals. Yes, our forefathers were mostly Christian, but they were adamant that we would not establish any state religion. As the centuries have passed, more and more people who live here are of some faith other than Christianity or have no religious inkling. One of the great concepts of this country is that those people have just as many rights as those who believe just as the forefathers did. And so, we have had to enact laws to prevent the majority from acting as if their religion was the religion of the land. Judges will decide how our Constitution should be interpreted, but lawmakers everywhere of almost every stripe could not wait to wave their indignation in our faces after last week’s ruling. In Washington they hurried to the Capitol steps and, as the cameras rolled, recited the pledge, putting special emphasis on the “God” part. Why the pompous public displays of patriotism and religion? Who knows, but posturing for cameras is far different from the real patriotism and heartfelt displays we witnessed after the tragedies of Sept. 11. Perhaps that uncontrollable outpouring from nearly a year ago now makes grandiose and meaningless gestures more apparent than they were pre-Sept. 11. As the debate lingers into this July 4 weekend, let’s not forget the rest of the pledge: “... with liberty and justice for all.”