Keep Your Patriotism Off Their Atheism

New York Times:Judge Rules Reciting Pledge in Schools Is Unconstitutional

Requiring students to say the words "under God" forces a religious act, according to a federal judge. Soon, an injunction could stop California schoolkids from saying the pledge on these grounds. Sure, it'll be contested and no doubt bump all the way up to the Supreme Court, and I hope they'll rule as Judge Karlton did. The Pledge as is violates the Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom, but more importantly, God is too precious to be bandied about in a civic rite. So they can keep their public fealty off my private deity . . . Okay, I'll stop.

In the Catholic student center at my college, our chaplains had an odd piece of art hanging: it represented several nationalistic slogans: Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite; Pravda Vitesi (excuse my lack of accents aigu and Cyrillic font); dulce et decorum est pro patria mori; and In God We Trust. I couldn't quite figure out what this was supposed to convey, but I suspected a sentiment akin to my own: to show how God is co-opted in American political symbolism for purposes no greater than those pursued by other, potentially hostile, governments. It's funny that without the Kremlin slogan (especially in that Catholic context) I would have been nearly sure it was meant as mere inspirational propaganda, and grossly out of place in a house of prayer.

The church my cousins attend will sing patriotic songs for the recessional on national holidays, and since we tend to visit them on holiday weekends, we've heard more than our fair share of "America the Beautiful" resounding from the pews. I wonder why the GIRM permits this, if in fact it does. Why not remain aloof and above national allegiances, since love for God should always come first and God is for the world?

Let's pray, as religious patriots, that church and state will link only in the persons of those who serve both, not in policies which are demeaning to both, because against the principles of each. If elected president before all this gets resolved, I won't be forcing my non-religious constituents to follow suit. Nope, my legislation will stay far away from your meditation. Promise.