"One Nation Under God" does not establish a National Religion

Mr. Newdow is offended that his daughter, has to hear the word "God" in the pledge each day; therefore he wants to prevent her, and all the children in America from being FREE to say the word GOD at school.  The mother Sandra Banning and daughter, who are both Christians, have left him, but he wants to have control over his daughter, even though the daughter stays with the mother most of the time.   Even if the Supreme Court rules against the Pledge the daughter said, "I will still say 'one nation under God' under my breath, and no one will know that I'm breaking the law." Newdow argues "One Nation Under God" violates the "Separation of Church and State" principle.  There is not such clause, "Separation of Church and State", in the U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights. There is an establishment clause and a free exercise clause in the First Amendment.

The phase "One Nation Under God" does not establish a National Religion, but only acknowledges a long tradition of the majority of Americans from many different faiths, believing in God. In fact our national motto is "In God We Trust" which dates back to the coins of the Civil War era, and the "Star Spangled Banner" written by Francis Scott Key in 1814.  If Mr. Newdow is offended by the word God in the pledge, then he should be offended by the national motto, and if he is offended by our motto, then he should be offended by our National Anthem, and then he must be offend by America itself.   Remember John Witherspoon signer of the Declaration of Independence said, "If you oppose God then you oppose America."   It should be noted that Mr. Newdow continues to bring lawsuites against God and seeks to ban the National Motto from our buildings and money. The Supreme Court heard the oral arguments for the Pledge Case on March 24, 2004.  Mr. Newdow represented himself in the court.  A number of the Justices asked pointed questions, and appeared to be skeptical of Mr. Newdow's claim that the pledge becomes a prayer by adding the words, "One Nation Under God." A new National Poll taken in March 2004 showed that 84% of Americans want to keep the Pledge as is. In a separate Court Case Mr. Newdow lost his case to remove Opening Prayers from the House and Senate. This case has generated great interest, and a large number of groups have filed briefs with the court.  Over 50 different groups are involved in this case, such as (For the Pledge as is) U.S. Senate, U.S. House, Governor of California, ACLJ., Liberty Council, GrassFire, Focus on the Family, Wall Builders, Alliance Defense Fund, Christian Legal Society and the American Legion, to name a few. The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its ruling on Pledge case on June 14th, 2004. While the ruling keeps the pledge as is with the words "One Nation Under God" in it (for now), this issue is not really resolved.  The Court really side stepped the issue of Constitutionality.  The justices said that Mr. Newdow did not have legal custody over his daughter so the court would not rule on this case.  Justices Rehnquist, Thomas, and O'Connor wrote in their decision that they felt the words "Under God" did not violate the Constitution.   The ACLU and the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State have stated that they will bring other cases to court, working through the liberal California Ninth Circuit Court.  This issue will rise again so it is very important that the CRA bill is passed in Congress to stop these legal attacks on the Constitution.  If you want to keep the Pledge with "Under God", then we urge you to contact your Congressmen to support the CRA bill.  You can print out a Petition, fill it out, sign it and mail to your Congressmen.

  

You can Print out your own Bumper Sticker, by right clicking on image above, saving the file and later printing it on a color printer, you can get your bumper sticker laminated at Kinko's.

I'm still very skeptical of the Court's continuous ruling on religious practices in this country as their actions violate the First Amendment.  To learn more about the Courts, activist Judges click here.,                                       

          

The July 8, 2002 issue of Newsweek had a cover story on the Pledge Issue if you want to do further reading on the subject 

Last Update Jan. 2009