Opinion
 

Pledge not vital to our future

by Lynn Meyer

When "under God" fell under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court last week, I braced myself. Neither for Armageddon -- I am fairly confident that the survival of the universe does not hinge upon these two little words -- nor, surprisingly, for the demoralization of America's youth. My concern is not for the patriotism of this nation. I am 100 percent certain that if the Pledge of Allegiance is declared unconstitutional, Americans will still be proud of their country and of the freedoms we enjoy.

What made me cringe when the Supreme Court took this case is that there are people in this country who lack such confidence. There are people who actually believe that it is through the indoctrination of the Pledge of Allegiance that we preserve our country's heritage and pride. These are the same scary people who advocate that the role of the United States government is to preserve the "sanctity" of marriage, deny birth control to unwed women, and to protect, exclusively, the values of the Christian church.

They are the religious right.

It is their lack of faith, ironically, that frightens me most. Exacerbating the impact of this court case, they imply that unless the pledge is stumbled upon elementary school students every morning, America will become a godless nation, unaware of its history and hopeless for a moral future.

This dismal forecast for our nation is repulsive for many reasons. I find that this attitude totally discredits American intelligence. While it is their right (guaranteed by the First Amendment) to believe that in the absence of God, humanity is incapable of making moral decisions--it is simply not supported by statistics.

In increasingly godless western European countries, birth rates and crime rates are actually lower than those in the United States. Somehow, even without recognizing God's existence in school every morning, other nations have moral societies. Need more convincing? These countries are far more socialized than the government of the United States. Taxpayers in that evil nation of France, for example, value universal health care coverage over accumulating greater personal wealth. Now, what would Jesus do in a similar situation? Would he be like a conservative American and leave the poor in the cold when it comes to health care? Or would he sacrifice a portion of his salary? Based on what I've heard about Jesus, he seems pretty big on sacrifice.

Yet, the religious right is surprisingly silent on issues of socialization.

They are more concerned with issues dealing with God's name in government. They claim that they fight this good fight in order to preserve our nation's foundation, one that they interpret to be Christian. However, when it comes to the Pledge of Allegiance, they are uncomfortable-- when addressing the actual history of why God was included. This is probably because the phrase was added in 1954 -- well over a 100 years after the country's foundation -- as anti-Communist propaganda. This was not the proudest moment in our country's history. 

The patriotism and morality of our future generation lies less in the words they speak than in the actions they observe. Focusing less on language and more on conduct should be good enough not only for the religious right, but for everyone in this country as well.

Meyer, a columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at lilcopperpenny@yahoo.com.