My answer to freeper e-mail.... [View All]

[Branjor]

I received the following e-mail from a freeper friend:

It is said that 86% of Americans believe
in God. Therefore I have a very hard time understanding why
there is such a mess about havi ng "In God We Trust" on our
money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don't
we just tell the 14% to Sit Down and BE QUIET!!!

This was my reply to it:

Do you realize that "under God" was not a part of the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954? Before that, nobody said it. It was added to the pledge in the repressive 1950s era of the thoroughly discredited Senator Joseph McCarthy, the guy who instigated witchhunts throughout society, labeling all those whom he didn't like and didn't agree with "communists". Many innocent people lost their jobs and had their lives ruined in that era. Like it or not, separation of church and state is a very important constitutional principle, set forth by the founding fathers at the very inception of this society for a reason. I personally have no problem with the "In God We Trust" on money ("In money we trust" would be more accurate, though), maybe because it has been around all my life.

The Pledge, without "under God" would go as follows:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
And to the republic for which it stands
One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I see nothing wrong with that. Why does the right wing have such a problem with it? Because they hate the principle of separation of church and state and want to force their religion down everybody's throat. They are the most unAmerican of all. We are supposed to have freedom of religion, not a theocracy.

As for the minority, the 14% mentioned above (not sure if that statistic is right or not) "sitting down and being quiet", NO WAY. I am an American and have feedom of speech just as much as the next guy. If the next guy doesn't like it, too bad. It is a basic tenet of democracy that everybody gets to have their say, "minority" or not. Telling those with other viewpoints to "sit down and be quiet" is about as democratic as the old Soviet Russia was.
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Can anyone think of any good points that I left out? I want to make these replies as good as I can.

Thanks.