Dear Editor,
Jessica Kerman wrote in Wednesday's column that keeping God in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. This is in light of the recent legal action taken by California atheist Michael Newdow against the "under God" phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance.
I think it should be first noted that the mother of Newdow's daughter is a born-again Christian. She and the daughter both want no place in the case and have spoken against it. But by using words such as "injured" and "condemned," Kerman turns one man's crusade against God into a struggle for freedom. So how has Newdow's right to deny God been violated? No one is forcing him to accept the existence of a God. The Pledge itself is not mandatory. How exactly has he been injured? Is he also injured every time he sees the words "In God We Trust" upon our currency? And if his concern is truly for his daughter isn't he worried that she may be far more injured when she goes to church with her mother?
The fact is that this nation was founded on the principles of the Christian faith. The Constitution was written, as John Adams said "only for a moral and religious people." Patrick Henry best summarized the influence of Christianity on the American government when he said, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ." Kerman has obviously done her homework on the Pledge but the fact that she seems to have made little effort to investigate the foundations of this nation is disappointing.
The point is that to remove God from the Pledge on the grounds that it is not Constitutional is just plain wrong. As Thomas Jefferson noted, "God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis?" Jefferson, like the other Framers, realize that if you remove God from the equation then there is no basis for our liberties other than a document written by men, a document that can be reinterpreted and even altered. That was never the intent and that is why we are one nation under God.
Andrew Balke
Junior4420-¦+â-¬>o_Balkeletter_03.30.04DNEditorial442SORT+â-ä2AUDT
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