The Associated Press reported that a federal appeals court upheld the use of the words, “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency, “rejecting arguments…that the phrases violate the separation of church and state.” I suppose it’s useless to point out that “separation of church and state” is not in the constitution. What is there is that no laws may be passed “respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Atheist Michael Newdow, a doctor and attorney, maintained that those phrases infringed on his religious beliefs. Is this his belief or the reporter’s take on the issue? As it is expressed in the article, it would appear that Newdow has a religion, Atheism.
The Pledge of Allegiance was allowed because it “serves to unite our vast nation through the proud recitation of some of the ideals upon which our Republic was founded.” That is from a 60 page majority opinion. The phrase, “in God We Trust” was allowed on coins and currency because the phrase is ceremonial and patriotic, not religious.
As a Christian, I believe that God is more than one of the ideals upon which our Republic was founded. Also, as a Christian I believe that God is not merely ceremonial or patriotic. God, through the word of the prophets, had unkind things to say about those who only used his name in a ceremonial way and to bolster their belief that God had chosen them; therefore, he would not allow his chosen people to be defeated.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be confined to a uniting ideal. He can’t even be limited to the confines of the entire expanding universe. He did, however, for our life and for our salvation, unite himself to a human body in the person of Jesus who died and rose again that we might be united in him. That’s not an ideal, but real salvation worked out in the history of the world, on the cross.
God was getting along just fine when we still recited the Pledge of Allegiance in 1953 without the “under God” phrase. The same can be said for the phrase on our money. Those are nice sentiments, but have nothing to do with the Creed we confess at worship. Our God is a living God who pledged himself that he would save us from sin, death and the devil. This he did through his very own son, Jesus Christ. No legal challenge by someone of the “no god” religion is able to neither change that nor take it away.
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