Editorial

Self-proclaimed atheist Michael Newdow should thank God that he lives in America.

The very ability of Newdow to claim that the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance violates the Constitution is based on our founding documents’ recognition that certain rights are “inalienable” because they are granted to every person – by God!

If Newdow and his collaborators on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals have their way, schoolchildren must stop pledging allegiance to our nation “under God” as they stand each morning in America’s public schools. Newdow claims that such utterances violate the “separation of church and state” guaranteed by the First Amendment’s religion clauses.

Has it really come to this in America? “Under God” in a simple, patriotic statement is off-limits for our kids while under the care of the government schools?

In a case that Supreme Court watchers believe may be among the most important to be heard this year, Newdow defended his own claim March 24 before the nation’s highest court that the current wording of the Pledge of Allegiance violates the First Amendment and that “under God” must forever be expunged from all recitations of the Pledge by our kids. Illustrating the elite media’s hope for a Newdow victory, New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse breathlessly wrote about the atheist’s much-anticipated defense: “But no one who managed to get a seat in the courtroom is likely ever to forget his spell-binding performance.” (For more on the arguments, see, “Positive outcome expected in Supreme Court Pledge case.”)

Spell-binding performances notwithstanding, does the U.S. Constitution forbid the invocation of God in the manner found in the Pledge of Allegiance? That’s the core question before the Supreme Court in Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow.

According to the New York Times, the Bush Administration’s brief defended the utterance by arguing that the offending phrase is simply a patriotic acknowledgment of “the nation’s religious history” and of the “undeniable historical fact that the nation was founded by individuals who believed in God.”

While also noting our history, another brief before the Supreme Court in support of the inclusion of “under God” in the Pledge points to a more fundamental rationale for this acknowledgment of the Divine: the principles which undergird our nation’s founding documents assume, are based upon, and cannot exist apart from a recognition that God is the Giver of liberties, not men or governments.

This is the central truth which must guide the Supreme Court’s decision in this case.

Filed by Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, a non-profit civil liberties education and legal defense organization, the brief provides a fascinating historical review of America’s religious identity, making a compelling case for why the Pledge is indeed constitutional.

Starting with George Washington and continuing throughout American history, including the current occupant of The White House, Liberty Counsel cites numerous examples of presidential proclamations that have invoked God in one way or another. In addition to the obvious fact that every president has taken the oath of office by concluding, “So help me, God,” the brief further cites passages from every presidential inaugural address to illustrate the truth that America’s leaders have repeatedly called upon recognition of God in their official actions.

James Madison, our fourth president, said, “... That Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future.”

What is particularly noteworthy about this comment is that Madison was the Father of the Constitution and the key advocate for the Bill of Rights, including the religion clauses which are now said to prevent in our children’s recitation of the Pledge exactly what Madison did in his inaugural address – recognize God.

Similarly, Thomas Jefferson – to whom hyper church-state separationists exalt as the advocate for the high “wall of separation between church and state” – opined: “[It is] God who gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a Gift of God?”

The Liberty Counsel brief also surveys America’s founding documents, noting numerous examples of the recognition of God in every state constitution, including Florida’s, which affirms, “... being grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional liberty, in order to secure its benefits, perfect our government, insure domestic tranquility, maintain public order, and guarantee equal civil and political rights to all, do ordain and establish this constitution.”

The Florida constitution merely echoes what the Founding Fathers asserted in the truly revolutionary Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Government does not create fundamental rights, it merely acknowledges and protects them, recognizing that those rights are inseparable from the human existence because God has granted them to every human being.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, our 34th president, understood this truth. The Liberty Counsel brief notes that in his first inaugural address, while speaking about America’s founding political principles, he said, “It establishes, beyond debate, those gifts of the Creator that are man’s inalienable rights, and that make all men equal in His sight. ... The enemies of this faith know no god but force, no devotion but its use. ... Whatever defies them, they torture, especially the truth. Here, then, is no argument between slightly differing philosophies. This conflict strikes directly at the faith of our fathers and the lives of our sons.”

Asserting America’s religious identity in its founding era and the invocation of God by her leaders is not the same thing as suggesting that authentic, biblical faith necessarily characterized those leaders of yesteryear – or today. Those of us who adamantly insist that a reasonable reading of the First Amendment does not require the finding that the current wording of the Pledge is unconstitutional should not be mistaken to mean that we believe such pledges are suitable substitutes for genuine, evangelical faith. They are not. But neither is it improper for we who believe that true salvation is only found in Jesus Christ to remind our government that political freedom is grounded in the existence of a God who has granted “inalienable rights.”

What an irony – the very rights exercised by an atheist in claiming that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because it invokes God would not exist apart from the fact that our nation’s founding documents root those rights in the truth of a Divine Being who has given such liberties to every person!

Michael Newdow should thank God that as an American citizen he has the right to make his argument. Let’s pray the Supreme Court remembers the Source of our liberty and affirms that we should all pledge allegiance “under God.”