One Nation Under God -- Not!

[cbayer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phil-zuckerman/one-nation-under-god-not_b_1858165.html


Phil Zuckerman
Professor of Sociology, Pitzer College in Claremont, CA.

At last week's Republican National Convention, Florida Senator Marco Rubio was loud and clear: What makes us Americans is our shared belief in God. That's it -- above all else. Forget adherence to the Constitution, forget a hatred of tyranny, forget a love for baseball. Forget watching reality TV while ingesting a double-cheese burger, large nachos and a 32 ounce orange soda. No -- what binds Americans together is, according to this Christian politician, theism.

As Rubio proclaimed: "We are special because we're united not by a common race or ethnicity. We're bound together by common values ... that almighty God is the source of all we have." And furthermore: "Faith in our Creator is the most important American value of all."

Rubio's wrong. There are countless values that are far more important than having faith in an invisible, invertebrate, unknowable deity. Valuing education, for example. Valuing democracy. Valuing human rights. Valuing free speech. Valuing trees, mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers and the ozone layer. Valuing affordable healthcare. Valuing nutritious school lunches. Valuing one's spouse, one's friends, one's neighbors. It is far more important to value and love one another, and to act on that love, than to have faith in a god.

Rubio is also wrong about something else, too: faith in God is not shared by all Americans. In fact, millions of hard-working, child-raising, military-joining, coal-mining and liberty-loving Americans live their lives without faith in God. And millions more live their lives without any interest in religion whatsoever. The statistics are surprisingly clear on this front. Back in the 1990s, about 8 percent of Americans claimed "none" as their religion. Then, in 2007, the Pew Forum found that the percentage of non-religious Americans had doubled, up to 16 percent. In 2010, Putnam and Campbell's national survey put the percentage at 17 percent. In 2011, the General Social Survey reported it at 18 percent. This year, the Pew Forum bumped it up to 19 percent. (Anyone see a pattern here?) And then, according to the WIN-Gallup International "Global Index of Religion and Atheism" released about two months ago, a whopping 30 percent of Americans describe themselves as nonreligious. So whether we're talking 16 percent, 19 percent or 30 percent, we're talking tens of millions of Americans who are more secular than not.

more at link

[Progressive dog]

1. The Founding Fathers kept faith out of the Constitution

We are united through our government, a government founded to very specifically exclude faith from consideration.

[meow2u3]

2. Somone added "Under God" to the Pledge in 1954

for purely anti-Communist reasons.

[rug]

3. It was also directed at Communist teachers in the public schools.

Starting the day with the Pledge of Allegiance was their litmus test.

Next to the unions, teachers were the big target.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-04-26/news/31413524_1_privacy-concerns-informants-investigators

[Leontius]

4. Next up that pesky "In god we trust" motto

What to do what to do.

[Goblinmonger]

7. Here's what we do as progressives.

Realize this is a secular government. Realize that the founding fathers worked very hard to keep god out of the Constitution. Realize that these jingoistic bullshit statements in our pledge and on our money are just sophomoric dog-whistle statements that need to go.

That's what I imagine a progressive would do. YMMV.

[rexcat]

8. Nice reply...

[2ndAmForComputers]

9. I would imagine that too.

And, from "If A then B," it follows "If not B, then not A."

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. That was war propaganda

http://www.treasury.gov/about/education/Pages/in-god-we-trust.aspx

And the nickel managed without it from 1883 to 1938.

[pinto]

5. Prof. Zuckerman really makes a common sense case in this piece.

While I don't think it's a clear cut either/or situation, Rubio's comments were clearly a step towards simplistic theism in political affairs.

Love to see that countered in down-to-earth terms.

[skepticscott]

6. What does it matter?

People like this are just a tiny, fringe minority, who have no influence over laws or government. And they aren't "real" Christians anyway, they're just Christianists, so nobody pays attention to them, right?

[Starboard Tack]

11. K&R.

[okasha]

12. If I remember correctly, I was in second grade when the change was made.

I decided on the spot that I liked the pledge in its original form and have been saying it that way ever since, simply omitting the "under God."

[cbayer]

13. I seem to remember a change as well, but was pretty oblivious to what it was.

I'm not sure that it was optional at the time.