SAN FRANCISCO, USA, June 29, 2002: A well crafted editorial commentary by Mark Morford, SF Gate columnist has raised some interesting issues about the United States “Pledge of Allegiance” with it’s suddenly controversial phrase “under God” and bipartisan opinion about prayer in schools. A judge just recently ruled the pledge was unconstitutional, because it violated the US constitution’s separation of church and state. Everyone in the country from President Bush on down has commented on the decision. Morford’s article says that maybe some agree with the President that America is Christian country and its “rights were derived from God.” Maybe you think the current, hypocritical separation of church and state, with its sanctimonious mentions of a patriarchal Christian God everywhere, is the righteous path. But, America is also the most religiously diverse country in the world teeming with saris and yarmulkes and monk’s robes and funky prayer beads and glorious ornate temples of every shape and size. There are more Muslims in the U.S. now, for example, than there are Jews or Episcopalians. America, spiritually speaking, is not what most people think it is. But nowhere is religious funk and spiritual diversity more prevalent and visible than in the classroom, which since the mid-’60s has seen an explosion of immigrant cultures and beliefs, a dazzling and unprecedented intermixing of faiths. Hence, he adds, it would seem to require negligible rationale or subtlety of mind to see that “under God” is really rather inane and exclusionary and insulting to a vast and increasing chunk of the soon-to-be-voting populace. For the editorial in it’s entirety, click “source” above.
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