New Hampshire court dismisses atheist’s Pledge of Allegiance lawsuit
Famed atheist crusader Michael Newdow took his quest to New Hampshire. He was representing an atheist family who claimed that their rights were being violated because the Pledge of Allegiance was being said in school. We all know what the offending words in the pledge are– under God. These two little words drive atheists crazy. How people can be offended just by the word “God” whether or not you believe in God is beyond me.
The parents of the children whose rights were supposedly violated are also members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. It goes without saying but I will say it anyway; the first amendment guarantees the freedom of religion, not the freedom from religion. The first amendment states that congress shall make no law respecting an esablishment of a religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. This amendment was meant to stop state sponsored religion. It was not meant to wipe the slate clean of all references to God. Just mentioning the word “God” does not constitute the state founding of a religion and it does not prohibit an atheist from the free exercise of non-religion, therefor it does not violate the first amendment.
And a New Hampshire court has agreed with my opinion. The court has dismissed the case and children will still be allowed to recite the Pledge of Allegiance– at least for now, there will be an appeal.
According to New Hampshire law schools are required to set aside time for the Pledge of Allegiance but student participation is voluntary. If you disagree with the pledge for any reason you are not required to recite it. If you are so offended by the word “God” in the pledge that you break out in hives at the mere mention of the word than the school cannot require you to utter those distasteful words.
But that is not good enough for the militant atheists, it is not good enough that their children do not have to recite a pledge that they do not believe in– they want to remove all references to God in all walks of life. They want to trample on the rights of those who do believe in God. They want to force their non-beliefs on the believers. Conveniently they forget the second part of the freedom of religion clause, the part that says congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion. They are the ones who are trying to violate the first amendment.
Someone please tell me how children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance violates the first amendment. I guess I just don’t understand. The pledge is not a pledge of religion, the words “under God” are such a small part of the pledge. The pledge was meant as an affirmation of ones belief in his country. The children are not being indoctrinated into religion by reciting the pledge.
I would like to take the time to break down the pledge and what it actually means but I cannot say it any better than Red Skelton did years ago so I will take this opportunity to post Red Skelton’s Pledge of Allegiance below.
Doesn’t that seem to be all too prophetic?
America's Watchtower 
I have a brief statement I want to make, directed at Michael Newdow…
PISS OFF LOSER! 😛
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The Constitution has no mention of God. The founding fathers were secular and enlihhtened. They were breaking free from religious persecution in England. The very conservative 50’s inserted god there. For us Atheists, it is offensive, because we are mentioning a being that does not exist. We want to recite a patriótic plegde without inserting a mythical being. The best pledge is: ‘I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with equality, liberty and justice for all.’ ‘I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with equality, liberty and justice for all.’
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First, I am not one to speak rudely to people with whom I disagree and I will not start now. It is true that the word “God” does not appear in the U.S. Constitution. That is not really an argument as to whether or not it is a secular document. However, to say that the “founding fathers” were secular is the height of uninformed historical revisionism. If one would do the slightest study of the primary documents written by a majority of the founders themselves it will become very clear that these men were not only profoundly religious, but deeply Christian. What about the “mythical being” argument? How far should we take this “being offended” complaint? Have we really come to the place that the guiding principle of national policy is “everybody being happy?”
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Very well said pastor. It is true that the word “God” does not appear in the constitution but it does appear in many of the founding documents. The whole premise behind the founding of this country was the fact that the founders believed our freedom comes from God and therefor no human has the right to take it away.
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The Pilgrims were escaping religious persecution, the founders were fighting taxes. I understand that most of them were enlightened and that Thomas Jefferson made it one of his crusades to seperate religion from politics, he even founded the secular University of Virginia and had many writings on the subject, but I still think my argument holds that the pledge does not represent a state sponsored religion.
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Jefferson’s mention of the Creator in the Declaration notwithstanding.
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Public school spends money and time (both at the public expense) on the pledge of allegiance, hence it should be free of any religious comment. Under god is a religious comment and as such should not be included. “Voluntary” does not apply to children, they will do what they see done. Believing that a child can decide where he/she stands on religious arguments is absurd to the extreme.
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I believe in complete separation from church and state. Public school is state. Freedom FROM religion is important. gods, unicorns, tooth fairies, and all other lies have no place in public schools. Militant atheist? You are an alarmist and a moron…debtor-slave.
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