(This article concerns a case presently before the Supreme Court where one man attempts to impose his opinion that the words "Under God" should be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance.)

Maybe Michael Newdow is right. Maybe the words “under God” do not belong in the Pledge of Allegiance. Certainly an argument can be made that this nation is not very God-like at times. Newdow claims he is an atheist, and that “every school morning, my child is asked to stand up, face that flag, put her hand over her heart and say that her father is wrong.” Considering that ninety-five plus percent of this world’s population believes in a higher power, that little girl had better learn that lesson quickly. Whether he wins his lawsuit or not, his little girl is not going to be spared the point of view that her father holds an extremely small minority view of spiritual reality.

In fact, why stop there? There are many people who would challenge the assertion that our nation is “one nation.” We hear every day about the diversity of races and cultures in our society—the haves and have-nots, the privileged and the disenfranchised. Certainly we are not “indivisible” by any stretch of the imagination. Does anybody truly believe that there is “liberty and justice for all?” How insensitive we must appear to foreign nationals in our country, here to reap the benefits of our free society, and the illegal aliens who sneak into our classrooms for free lunches, medical attention, and educations, to be forced to hear us pledge allegiance “to the flag of the United States of America?”

Perhaps the Pledge of Allegiance no longer serves its purpose. There are many reasons to put this quaint little pledge out to pasture. But there is one reason not to: the Pledge of Allegiance unites us as a society, as a nation, and as a people. It creates a brotherhood of liberty that makes us responsible for our fellow man. It creates a community of justice where the rights of the little guy are protected from bullies. That silly little pledge—spoken by soldiers in foxholes around the globe who fought to keep America safe from her enemies, whispered proudly by a society that had gathered around televisions in living rooms across this nation to witness mankind’s first small steps on the moon, uttered boldly by a grief-stricken, yet determined people in public squares in every city, town, village, and hamlet of our country in those first, scary days after September 11, 2001—that outdated little pledge has joined generations of Americans who all stood respectfully as children in schoolrooms all across America, creating an historic connection upon which our society has been built. Shame on us if the foolish gamesmanship of political thrill-seekers robs us of such a legacy.

Believing in God isn’t such a bad thing, Mr. Newdow. Men of faith birthed a nation where certain inalienable rights, granted by our creator, were guaranteed to every man. Rights like the one you have to protest the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. These inalienable rights would not exist if God did not exist. The law of the jungle would serve as the basis of our constitution had men of faith not expressed their God-given moral character through the formation of a society that grants to its citizenry what God has granted to His children. I have no passion for the Pledge of Allegiance, but I do have a passion against the anti-God zealots who attempt to capitalize on the benevolence of a free society in an effort to erase God from the public consciousness. I would rather they just say “thank you” for the inalienable rights we have granted them through our faith and devotion to God.