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Patriotic Pledge:
"Under God" comes under fire

Friday, June 28, 2002

Rulings test church-state; some see little change

By THAD RUETER | News-Journal Staff Writer

DAYTONA BEACH — God is not dead, nor even on the run, say scholars and other observers after court rulings this week banned the Pledge of Allegiance in schools and allowed government funding for students in religious schools.

In fact, they say, God pretty much remains where God has always been when it comes to the nation's politics and government: in an odd, tense little spot between constitutional protections, American political philosophy and the nation's enduring dedication to religious worship.

The case can even be made that Thursday's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court — which favored vouchers for private schools — combined with the war on terrorism, will bolster God's visibility in government.

Atheists and those supporting the strictest separations between church and state actually may find not so much a victory in the pledge ruling but a sign of how far removed they are from the political mainstream.

After all, when a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday the phrase "under God"— added to the pledge in 1954— was unconstitutional, politicians unified and rushed to the TV news cameras in a way not seen since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Locals have strong opinions, too.

"I think the two (judges) that voted for it should be shot," said Korean War vet George Davis, who was at the Holly Hill American Legion Thursday afternoon. "This freedom of speech thing has gone too (expletive) far."

Yet for all the recent bombast, nothing has really happened yet, as the ruling, per court rules, was on hold for 45 days, and Judge Alfred T. Goodwin of the 9th Circuit Court on Thursday stayed the ruling until other members of the court decided whether to change course. If the ruling stands, it would apply only to schools in the nine Western states the 9th Circuit covers.

"No one in the country has to stop saying the pledge," said Stetson University law professor James Fox, noting that the U.S. Supreme Court may eventually reverse the ruling, as many other legal experts predict will happen if the case makes it that far.

Fox said the highest court has generally banned prayers from schools — even prayers voluntarily initiated by students — but has allowed legislatures to open their sessions with invocations. "It's really unclear what the court would do in a case such as the pledge," Fox said.

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that public money can pay for tuition at private religious schools, a decision with national implications. The ruling, Fox said, "will have an effect on how the 9th Circuit looks at the (pledge) issue again."

Though she called the pledge ruling "a victory, even though it is small," Deborah Davis, president of the Fort Lauderdale chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the voucher ruling a "disappointment."

Davis said she's alarmed by the increasing use of and attention to religion and God since the Sept. 11 attacks, including efforts by states to mandate recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Already, most local governments in Flagler and Volusia counties recite the pledge before public meetings. Sometimes there's a prayer as well; some prayers mention Jesus, while others are more general. Davis worried about greater pressure to bring more religion to government.

"There's a certain faction of government who just want to keep a lot of people focused on prayer instead of other issues," Davis said. "I think they are going to use the war on terrorism as an excuse to bring more prayer and enforce their religious beliefs."

God regularly has been used as an aid to American morale during times of war.

During the third year of the Civil War — a conflict that by then was far longer and bloodier than most people had predicted — President Lincoln, in his second Inaugural Address, talked of God's "own purposes" as he encouraged an exhausted Northern population toward victory.

And it was during the Cold War — right after the United States had stopped fighting in Korea, and as the Soviet Union grew its nuclear arsenal — that President Eisenhower, with Congressional approval, decided to insert "under God" into the 62-year-old pledge.

Such history suggests that society may tolerate wider uses of God and religion during an ongoing war than during peacetime. A local scholar makes a similar point.

"Religion often comes to the forefront because people are seeking to understand their way through the morasses they find themselves in," said Donald Musser, a Stetson University professor of religious studies. "In crises, people turn to their religious foundations."

The rulings about the Pledge and vouchers also are part of a larger story, he said: the place of religion in American public life. The Constitution "lets everyone have religion, but it doesn't support any one religion. It's not a contradiction," he said, "but an inherent tension."

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