"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Those words are taken from the Bill of Rights, most specifically the first amendment to the Constitution. No, let's be even more specific, the first PART of the first amendment to the Constitution. For those of you who aren't history buffs like me (and don't watch historical documentaries for fun), what this means is that our founding fathers; people like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams, and so on, fought the American Revolution to keep religion out of politics. Not to keep religions other than Christianity out of politics, to keep ALL RELIGIONS out of politics. To the next person who says, "our country was founded on Christianity", I'm going to hand you a history book.
These men and their families, and the friends' families, and their families before them, many of them left Europe because of religious persecution. In other words, they were put down, mistreated or otherwise vilified because the religion they practiced wasn't the religion of choice of the current king or queen. The principal that all religious beliefs be allowed and accepted in the new country was important enough to them that it was the very first idea in the Bill of Rights, a crucial part of the Constitution for the new country they had fought, sacrificed and so many had died for. Yet here you are over 200 years later saying any religion but Christianity isn't okay? And then justifying it by trying to claim that our founding fathers would have agreed with you? Wrong.
While we are on the subject of religion - religion doesn't belong in the public school system either, for the very reasons listed above. If you want your child to attend a religious school, they have those. Lots and lots of those. If you choose to have your child attend a public school, then you are choosing to go with a state run school and religion has no place in government or politics. That doesn't mean your child cannot share, pray or otherwise acknowledge their religion in school. It is perfectly acceptable for your child to pray before they eat or at prayer time. I have had students do so in the past and would welcome any child who does so in the future, to whatever God they choose. With that said, this meme needs to go away...
Again, if you share this meme I used to ignore it. Not anymore. Every single time I see it I am going to say something. First of all, who ever said the pledge was not okay? Everyone says it. We say it at FC, my kids said it at DE and I don't know a single school that doesn't say it. Do I think the words "under God" should be included in the pledge? Nope. So if you choose not to say it because your religion does not allow you to pledge to another God, I'm completely understand that. Before you get your panties in a twist, let me remind you that the Pledge wasn't even written until the late late 1800's. One hundred years AFTER the country was founded. When it was written, the Pledge went as follows "I pledge allegiance to the Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." It wasn't until 1954 that Eisenhower and Congress added the words "under God". So yes, the top picture in the meme is 100% okay and so is the bottom. It isn't an either or kind of thing. Both are okay. Both are allowed. Both are acceptable.
While we are having a history lesson, our founding fathers didn't put "in God we trust" on our original money either. That was added later, as in times of war and fear, people turn to their religions for comfort. At no time in our history was our country more shattered, more upset, more in turmoil than the Civil War. It was at that time that a faction of devout Christians proposed that our coins be changed to reflect a new united nation that believed in one higher power. Since our government had an overwhelming majority of Christians, possibly all, at the time, it was easy for the changes to pass through and seem like a good idea.
Our country wasn't founded on the Pledge, it wasn't founded on "in God we trust" and it wasn't founded on a Christian God. It was founded on respecting others, freedom to choose to be different and have different beliefs, and human rights to have your own thoughts and ideals - even IF they are different from the collective masses. The word "freedom" didn't come with stipulations. It wasn't "free to follow one religion, speak one language, celebrate one set of holidays, or pray one way. Freedom doesn't have limitations. You can't beat your breast claiming that our country is the best there ever was and wave our flag saying you are a true American, unless you can embrace the ideals that our country was truly founded on and ACCEPT others for not being like you.
Our country is not suffering because we have taken the church out of schools or public places. Our country suffers when people take religion out of their homes and their own lives. If you want your kids to be Christians and live the Christian life, they don't need to learn that at school; they need to learn math, reading, science, grammar, etc....
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