Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Caudeces et Furciferes

The First Amendment of our Constitution reads thus: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

It is on the first clause that Michael Newdow, my physician role model (read sarcasm), decided to base his case that the words “under God” should be taken out of the Pledge of Allegiance. Apparently, he felt that it was making his little daughter feel bad to hear those awful words every day in school, so he decided to prevent the other 260 million people in America from saying them. Too bad that his daughter actually professes to be a Christian and proudly says the words “under God” with all her heart. Throw in the fact that his ex-wife who shares her daughter’s feelings is the one who has custody over the girl, and his case is pretty much gone. The judge felt that way, anyway.

Now the esteemed Dr. Newdow is at it again, this time, he wants the prayer removed from the presidential inauguration, because he believes that it also violates the First Amendment. And he’s right—the First Amendment does say that when something that the vast majority of Americans agree with offends an atheist, it should be banned so his feelings and self esteem won’t be hurt… Oh wait—no it doesn’t. Funny, I read it as “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion…” Last I checked, having someone give a prayer in public did not equate to Congress making a law establishing Christianity as America’s mandatory religion. Considering the fact that the people who wrote the Bill of Rights had Christian ministers pray at every meeting (in fact, the majority of the founding fathers had gone to a Christian seminary), somehow I don’t think that the First Amendment prevents prayer in a public event.

If anything, removing the words “under God” from the pledge, and prohibiting a prayer to be said at the inauguration is a blatant violation of the First Amendment. You see, liberals always choose to quote the first clause along with their catchy little “separation of church and state” ditty, but ignore the rest of the amendment: “…or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

Liberals will be quick to point out in the fashion that only liberals can do and be entirely serious, “Well, what would you say if they prayed to Allah or Satan?” I will be quick to respond—when they can show me how Muslims or Satanists contributed to the founding of America, or that most Americans consider themselves to be Muslims or Satanists (actually, if the latter case were true, I would not be responding because I would have emigrated already), they will have an argument. Until then, may God give blessing and mercy to this Nation, because we badly need both.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home