PressEthic

Those crazy Knights of Columbus, they couldn’t leave well enough alone!

With the recent ruling that reciting the pledge of allegiance in schools is unconstitutional I did a little research on the history of the pledge. I found that Congress added the words ‘under God’ in 1954 after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus to make the pledge “both a patriotic oath and public prayer.”

I am amazed that congress passed this campaign - even if it was 1954. What happened to a separate church and state?

I was watching CNN last night and students were writing in that they individually omit the words when reciting them in class. One high school student even said he was refusing to say the pledge of allegiance to protest the war in Iraq.

I agree that the words ‘under God’ are not needed in the pledge of allegiance. How would Christians feel if the pledge said ‘under Buddha’? they’d have a fit.

Incidentally The New York Times ran a story from Reuters that said our president (whose approval rating has recently dipped below 50 percent) reported the following:

“President George W. Bush entered the conflict between religion and secularism when he said the theory of ``intelligent design'' -- that life on Earth is so complex it must have been guided by an unseen power -- should be taught in schools alongside evolution.’”

I wouldn’t look to him to lead congress in voting to omit those two little words any time soon.