So true. I worship the God of Chaos. You have seen through my clever plan. I was hoping no one would reach the obvious conclusion that by stopping the recital of the pledge the US would be plunged into anarchy. All of our Laws, and the Constitution itself, rests on the recital of the pledge by 8 year olds around the country.
I will have to try to find less obvious ways to bring down society as we know it. Your assistance is greatly appriciated, as no further time need be wasted on this foolish plan. I'd thank you further, but I must quickly assemble my minions.
The word "god" relates to religion in any context. The constitution specifically demands seperation of church and state. Unless you want to rewrite the constitution, these denotions and rituals that have been snuck into the government process and currency are illegal, under constitutional law. This seperation of church and state was put in there by the founding fathers to assure the freedom to practice any religion to citizens of the US. Putting one religion, or group of religeons into special favor with the government lessens that right for everyone else.
If you do not accept that, then you are ignorant of the fact that this is already going on. Satanic Churches are completely within the law, but you can bet your ass you won't see them getting any federal money from faith based initiatives. Islamic organizations and communities have suffered greatly in this country and have little to no recognition of their own holidays. Hindu beliefs get joked about. But even the craziest christian groups get the red carpet treatment in this nation, by comparison. They make millions off of the weak minded, despite the fact that anyone running a similar scam would be getting their doors kicked in by the ATF.
And on the other point:
Show me a single passage in the constitution that even mentions gays. You can't, because there are none (unless you count the persuit of hapiness thing) therefor making any discussion of gay issues in the context of constitutional law (fundies attempts to keep teh homos from marrying aside) completely invalid. I would in fact argue that homosexuality was probably a little more socially acceptable during the founding of our country than during the Reagan - Bush 1 years. That line of argument is pointless, as it has no bearing in a constitutional discussion and I am not personally gay (and therefor lack personal emotional investment in the issue) so if you are grabbing for an analogy, you are barking up the wrong tree.
War is an option whose time has passed. Peace is the only option for the future. At present we occupy a treacherous no-man's-land between peace and war, a time of growing fear that our military might has expanded beyond our capacity to control it and our political differences widened beyond our ability to bridge them. . . .
Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war.
--RICHARD M. NIXON, "REAL PEACE" (1983)
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, represents, in the final analysis, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."
kyoukan wrote:anything that violates the constitution of a country is harmful to that country, providing that the constitution is not an unfairly written farce designed to corrupt leadership and people. the constitution of the united states prohibits government in getting involved in matters of the faith. putting "in god we trust" onto the currency acknowledges faith; particularly faith in the judeo-christian god that it refers to. this is a tacit endorsement of christianity and therefore unconstitutional. you either think that the constitution is wrong in this case and think it is ok for it to be violated (and therefore have no respect for the law), or you just don't care about the constitution of your country at all. either way it is harmful for your country.
how would you feel if instead of "in god we trust" on all your currency it said "there is no god"? either way it would still be money and life would still go on, but there's no real reason for that to be there. the US was certainly not founded on atheistic beliefs (any more than it was build on a foundation of christianity). so why even have it at all?
And people say Kyoukan never contributes.
Why is it, regarding the pledge of allegiance, that you stop doing it after school? Why not do it every day at a given time, everyone? It seems to me to just be a tactic to try and, I don't want to say brainwash, but maybe brainsoak the youth into a patriotic mindset.
I remember when we used to say the Lord's Prayer at the start of the day, that eventually went away. I know they used to play 'O Canada' over the PA system every morning and we'd all stand and listen and some people would sing. None of it really mattered to me. When we said the prayer I was too young to have much of an opinion, to understand the idea of God and religion. Singing the anthem didn't inspire some religious-like fervor for my country. I just did it because I was told to.
So back to the pledge. What good is pledging your allegiance to the flag when you're only going through the motions? Seems to me this is the sort of thing that should be a matter of choice, something done on your own time. It's a political prayer basically.
I rambled. I need caffeine. And womenz. Caffeine and womenz.
Dregor brings out a good point, I was raised Catholic and I remember being forced to pray everyday, now did I really know what I was praying to or about? No all I wanted to do is get done with my prayer so I could go to bed or eat my meal before it gets cold. As far as the pledge, I do think it is important for our children to at least learn the pledge wioth or without "one nation under god", for me it does not matter.
Forthe wrote:I was raised Catholic as well and the scary thing is after ~17 years of no association with the church I still remember those prayers.
Yep. I wasn't from a very religious family at all. My folks believe in it, but we didn't start going to church until I was like 8 years old, and then only for a few years. Anglican. But I can still recite the Lord's Prayer no problem, and know the words to O Canada in both french and english despite not having sung it in oh... 10 years at least.
