Check this one out at First Things by Robert George, a Princeton Professor, to see how “under God” isn’t being battled over, it’s just being disappeared.
The Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and the Constitution of the United States of America—those were the three texts in the blue pamphlet I found on the table in front of me as I took my seat at a conference at Princeton.
On the cover was the logo of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, an influential organization whose boardmembers include former New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse, controversial Obama judicial nominee Goodwin Liu, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, former solicitors general Drew Days and Walter Dellinger, and former attorney general Janet Reno. The new Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan was a speaker at the society’s annual conventions in 2005, 2007, and 2008. And inside the pamphlet was a page saying, “The printing of this copy of the U.S. Constitution and of the nation’s two other founding texts, the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address, was made possible through the generosity of Laurence and Carolyn Tribe.”
Read the rest at First Things.
September 12, 2010 at 6:20 am
"Truth is the first casualty of war."
September 12, 2010 at 7:24 am
By adding in reference to the supernatural, this is a tacit government endorsement of religion which constitutes a violation of the establishment clause. Say what you will of religion, but our government was specifically designed to not interact with the religious sphere of life because of how much trouble it tends to cause. A secular state for freedom of, or from, religion allows equality for all beliefs.
Lincoln, and any president who references god may very well be in the wrong as to the spirit of the law, but with the prevailing religious atmosphere of the nation – very little backlash is felt by these utterances. What they do in their private lives is governed by the freedom that our constitution provides us.
Importantly, what an executive officer states does not make it precedent for the judicial branch or legally binding in any sense. They are men, and they can be wrong.
Here is a legally binding treaty signed with Tripoli. Of relevance is article eleven: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1796t.asp
We have the establishment clause for a reason. Because the government should not endorse, coerce, inhibit or promote religion in any sense, and referencing a deity in law, particularly the offical pledge of allegiance to the nation, is in clear violation of this.
Say it yourself if you want, add it in if you like, but please do not force those not of your faith to omit what is so contrary to their religious beliefs, or lack thereof, when pledging allegiance to the USA.
Citations:
Pub.L. 83−396, 68 Stat. 249, H.J.Res. 243, enacted June 14, 1954.
http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/04C1.txt
September 12, 2010 at 12:13 pm
The problem here is that a historical speech, a historical document, was altered. It doesn't matter what Lincoln said; it matters that it is preserved in its entirety and presented accurately. Falsifying or tampering with such things is a crime against humanity.
September 12, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Ah, problem solved!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address#Usage_of_.22under_God.22
It seems they reprinted the official draft of the speech. Lincoln improvised the line about "under God" when he gave it. But the draft remains the official document. Nothing wrong has been done here.
September 12, 2010 at 1:47 pm
You don't think they knew that the "under God" was added? Problem solved? Really?
Quoting the written document is like quoting Obama's teleprompter. Who cares what the teleprompter said. You quote the President, not his notes.
If you can so cleverly discover by going to Wikipedia, then why can't the publishers of that book?
September 12, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Loki,
There is no such things as the Establishment Clause. There is the 1st Amendment. Try reading it; focus one where the prohibition was leveled at (ie Congress). Everything else is just judicial activism. This nation isn't governed anymore, but ruled by a group of unelected bureaucrats and judges
September 12, 2010 at 6:48 pm
The official "canonical" text of Lincoln's speech, as Prof. George clearly lays out in his article, has always been considered to be the "Bliss copy," which the President wrote by hand after the speech in 1864, the only copy he signed. It is the one that has been memorized by generations of schoolchildren. It represents pretty much what he actually said at Gettysburg, and includes the words "under God." Those words were confirmed by the stenographic reports of three newspaper reporters present.
The "Hay draft" that the American constitution Society used — which wasn't discovered until 1906 — may possibly have been the actual piece of paper Lincoln held in his hands at Gettysburg, so it has historical value, but it still doesn't represent what he actually said.
The ACS apparently leaflet apparently used the official text of the Declaration of Independence, after all, not Thomas Jefferson's original handwritten draft; so why do differently for Lincoln's speech?
September 12, 2010 at 10:12 pm
"government was specifically designed to not interact with the religious sphere of life because of how much trouble it tends to cause."
Loki,
You don't get a pass on that stupid statement. Never mind there is no such thing as an 'establishment clause', we'll just skip that & point out that, if it weren't for religion & the 'trouble' it causes, our knowledge of astronomy, algebra, literature, history, the arts and, in short, our entire culture/civilization would be severly curtailed/nonexistant. Let's not even mention the fact that we wouldn't know God as our Father & Jesus as his Son or have the Church as our Mother with the sacraments on earth. Let's not go into the fact that all that is GOOD, TRUE AND BEAUTIFUL in life as been brought to you, ungrateful as you are, via "religion".
No, I guess none of that is worth mentioning to someone who is blind enough to post a statement like that.
September 12, 2010 at 10:19 pm
Does it really even matter? Less and less people believe in god anymore, anyway. The colleges have corrupted the masses by influencing them with science and facts. Education has destroyed the once dominant authority of the church. Lucky there are many uneducated people in third world countries and hispanic immigrant to the US that still belief and donate money to the Churches. These poor uneducated masses are our only hope.
September 12, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Um, Early Riser, that's sarcasm, right? Education might be at fault, but only because it has become so dreadful! Real education would fulfill our duty to know God – science, math, the arts, all illuminate what an awesome God we have. Facts can't possibly deny truth, and God is truth as much as He is love 🙂 The Church has authority ultimately because it was given by Christ, however, much of that authority on a worldly level has come from the absolute brilliance of many of the shepherds who have been called to serve, as was pointed out by the commenter directly preceding you.
September 13, 2010 at 1:45 am
It's funny because the "Under God" portion was added when God was starting to get so far from the public square that KOC recommended the footnote be added.
But I'm sure the publicly declared days American citizens fasting to God never happened. Why, this wimpy wampy Christian nonsense has always been this way, for my tv tells me so!
September 13, 2010 at 10:33 am
@ "if it weren't for religion & the 'trouble' it causes, our knowledge of astronomy, algebra, literature, history, the arts and, in short, our entire culture/civilization would be severly curtailed/nonexistant."
that's load of bunk. most of the scientific advances, innovation and technology we have today has arrived by men and women who are not religious. most come from free thinkers and scientists. the religious people just tend to be sheepeople. they don't innovate or fill the halls of our universities. the advances in society in the most recent times have come in spite of religion.
September 13, 2010 at 12:01 pm
"the advances in recent society have come in spite of religion" Really? I'm curious to hear about what you consider "advances" to be? In my opinion some of these in spite of religion "advances" seem to be advancing the deterioration of all that in good and destroying the very hope that the soul needs to live, love and care for another (the fruits that stem from abortion and euthanasia are quite rotten ) Advancing into a "ME, ME, ME" society doesn't sound like much of an advance unless you are one who considers that it's okay to try to change facts and rewrite history. Truth never changes! Thank GOD for that!
-Lisa
September 13, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Early Riser,
"..that's load of bunk. most of the scientific advances, innovation and technology we have today has arrived by men and women who are not religious. most come from free thinkers and scientists."
You seem to have a romantic view of history -especially the history of science and the West. Most of what Greek and Roman Antiquity was preserved by the Church. And it was the Church's formal understanding of God that set the foundations for what we would later dub Enlightenment. Enlightenment Thinkers were like first year college students – totally embarrassed by thier parents, and unwilling to recognize the debt they owed them. Whether it be the establishment of Catholic colleges, the resurrection of Greek philosophy, law and justice, or the idea of Man's dignity as derived from Natural Law, Enlightenment Thinkers were totally dependent upon a entire range of philosophic categories the Church established during the so-called Dark Ages. The West has been living off the inherited cultural fat of the RCC for almost 1000 years.
September 14, 2010 at 2:00 am
@ Lisa. Only idiots believe in that bunk today. If you believe it good for. Believe it I don't care. Yes, abortion is wrong and so is euthanasia. Rotten to the core. But if people want to do either. Who am I to judge? Abortion and euthanasia was around prior to when men wrote the bible and it will be after. No one person will stop that.
@ Jermo. No. The west has been living off the fruits of capitalist created in Northern Europe and propagated by North America. Yes, there been technological advance prior to 200 years ago, but there haven't been the same number of advance since the creation of the U.S. and almost all advance have come from universities or independent thinkings not sheepeople. What has the Church ever invented? Absolutely nothing unless you count child molestation!!!
September 14, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Wow – you think the Church invented molestation? Gosh, you aren't too clear on your history are you?
As far as the inventions of the Church, her shepherds and members of the flock, there's the Big Bang theory, the amp, the volt, the coulomb, the framework of the scientific method, modern astronomy, and modern genetics just to name a few.
September 14, 2010 at 10:33 pm
"almost all advance have come from universities or independent thinkings (sic), not sheepeople. What has the Church ever invented?"
For one thing, it invented the university!