“I pledge allegiance to the flag and my constitutional rights with which it comes. And to the diversity, in which our nation stands, one nation, part of one planet, with liberty, freedom, choice and justice for all.”
If that doesn’t exactly sound like the pledge of allegiance, you would be correct. But that is the pledge that some students are saying at BoulderHigh School. More than four dozen students have been participating in a “pledge protest” in the school courtyard.
The protest is motivated by many reasons but the principle criticism from the students is that the current pledge of allegiance violates the so-called “separation of church and state.” Of course, we have heard that argument before from atheist Michael Newdow and the judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The protest coincides with the time allowed by the school for the students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance if they want. The protesting students want the recitation to be during lunch so that people who don’t want to participate “won’t have to hear it.” They plan to hold the protest every week unless the school policy is changed. They believe that saying the pledge is a form of religion oppression.
Well, isn’t it amazing how far we have come in fifty years? Back in 1954, Congress added the words “under God” to the pledge in order to acknowledge God’s providence and protection of the United States of America. Back then, the addition was welcomed and hardly considered something controversial. After all Abraham Lincoln used the phrase in the Gettysburg Address. Fast forward to today and students not only want to remove any mention of God, but they want to fill the pledge with words like “diversity” and “choice.”
It might be easy to write off these high school students and see this as merely an immature teenage protest. But in many ways, their new pledge says more about America than many of us would like to admit. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.
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So what's next? I pledge allegiance to Darwin for his wonderful theory that allows us to put religion in the rubbish bin and allows us to do whatever we want without an eternal consequence... *vomits* Click here to reply to this post
Re: Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School
Posted On: 10/31/07 05:38:01 AM
Age 36, IRELAND
Not in judgement here but has any Bible believing Christian interviewed these kids to see just what they are protesting?
Might be worth getting their viewpoint.
My own convictions would be that let your Yea be Yea and your No, No.
Do not swear on anything.
Since Jesus said it I take it seriously.
While it is nice that people are patriotic there is a very real danger that these kind of rituals make a people who are cultural Christians.
Should not our true patriotism be towards our real homeland as Christians?
Should we not be spending each morning in prayer at the flag?
Praying for our leaders as we are instructed and praying for the boldness to spread the Gospel to the unsaved and not to assume that anyone who claims the name of Christ is a Christian.
Where is the focus? What *did* Jesus do?
May God continue to bless America but may He also do whatever it takes to bring this nation to its knees in repentance to the holy God whom they have rebelled against and in whose name they commit many atrocities.
A nation founded in Jesus now foundering in sin. Very similar to New Zealand at the moment. A sad state of affairs but inevitable, I believe since the bible says it will only get worse.
"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Click here to reply to this post
Re: Re: Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School
This is representative of all that our children are being indoctrinated with in our public schools. As a nation, we are reaping what we have sown over the past 40 years. My heart aches for my child and all others who will bear the consequences. As Christians we should be asking ourselves if we are raising children who won't be drawn in by the lies society teaches. Click here to reply to this post
Re: Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School
Posted On: 10/30/07 05:17:38 PM
Age 47, FL
Your view is not paranoid. Your view recognizes that when you were growing up, you believed that your elected leaders would behave like leaders and defend the honor of the nation against the endless procession of attacks wherever needed. But you have been betrayed. Your leaders have become an enemy within. Our nation is exposed. An aggressor, when sensing the weakness of his opponent, will increase the ferocity of his attack. That is what you see in the case of the secular left from inside America and Islamic Jihad from without.
Today, you are compelled to write an editorial. You are sending out feelers to find out if you are all alone. I am sure that you are not. But the means by which we will restore our nation will not be by editorial or the poll, but rather by forming militia's and enforcing our standards where the government will not.
The Revolutionary War and the Civil War, right here on this soil, were preceded by decades of civil strife. We are 40 years past Woodstock and the strife has hit the boiling point again. Be prepared. Click here to reply to this post
Re: Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School
Posted On: 10/30/07 03:35:22 PM
Age 68, OH
The Pledge, written by a Christian Socialist, has gone through a number of changes since it was first written in 1892 for a magazine. The first version didn't mention any country at all and was a bit all-purpose. This is not a matter Christians should fret about since it wasn't very Biblical to begin with. Click here to reply to this post
Re: Re: Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School
Posted On: 10/31/07 11:23:17 AM
Age 10, PA
I am a Christian who does not participate in the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. I cannot pledge allegiance to a flag that represents a country who no longer represents my God or even desires to acknowledge Him or His will publicly. As believers in Christ Jesus, we are called to pledge allegiance to Him and Him alone. We are called to love the Lord with all of hearts, minds, souls, and strength and to love one another as we love ourselves. While I am eternally grateful for the freedom that the flag represents and all those who have fought to ensure our freedom, by no means can I pledge allegiance to a country that does not pledge allegiance to my God, but is consistently in agreement with ousting God. Click here to reply to this post
Re: Re: Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School
Posted On: 10/31/07 09:25:23 AM
Age 57, AL
Whatever it was in the beginning, by a majority vote, the words "United States of America" and "Under God" was added to
"The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America"
The Christians should not be the only people to worry about how our children are being brainwashed by teachers that could care less if America ceased to exist.
What a shame, I wish that every citizen of the USA could visit another country and see how great this country is. Click here to reply to this post
Re: Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School
Posted On: 10/30/07 01:31:45 PM
Age 30, IA
What's God's Point of View? Are we even supposed to pledge anything in the first place? If we are, shouldn't it be to Christ and not a flag? No one has the spine to answer those questions, I'm just asking anyway. The world has no reason to listen to us when we're more traditional than Biblical. Click here to reply to this post
Re: Re: Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School
Posted On: 10/31/07 04:49:50 PM
Age 28, TX
"What's God's Point of View?" That we are all in need of redemption. Also, that those who throw back in His face the providence that He worked in the founding of this nation are ingrates--as with any blessing we reject..."Are we even supposed to pledge anything in the first place?" Only ourselves, and that to God. One may enter into a contract, which is more the purpose of the Constitution--upon breach of which, our Founding Fathers all firmly believed the people had the right to nullify..."Shouldn't it be to Christ and not a flag?" Perhaps. However, do you see that the new pledge is any better? That is Mr. Anderson's point...How is that for spine, neighbor?--Mrs. Pilgrim Click here to reply to this post
Re: Re: Re: Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School
Posted On: 10/31/07 10:08:02 PM
Age 30, IA
Why do you accuse me of rejecting God's Blessings? Where in Scripture are we told to recite a daily pledge like a mantra? I'd rather "pledge" to Christ than the flag. Maybe the reason you were so angry with me was that you interpreted my post as, "I hate the USA. Let's burn all US flags. God is dead. Christians suck." If so, we have a misunderstanding. In fact you sound the exact opposite from your statement above to the person from Ireland. The globalist pledge does sound worse, but I'm questioning the value of the act. Click here to reply to this post
Re: Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School
Posted On: 10/30/07 12:47:36 PM
Age 30, CA
This pledge doesn't seem at all globalist (if by that one means pledging loyalty to the globe as a whole rather than America and its Constitution). In fact it seems to fit with the sense of the pledge as it was first written and intended in the 19th century: a way of expressing unity for a nation composed of many different people groups. That's a wonderful ideal and one of America's strengths. These kids, in the pledge they wrote, seem to understand and express that. Also, to be fair to their position, they are additionally protesting the fact that many students simply mock the original pledge as they say it by making up their own words or using mocking tones and gestures as it is said. That is not the whole of their case, but it is hardly silly as it is characterized in the article. One may disagree with these students, but it doesn't look good when the argument against them depends on calling their actions an "immature teenage protest."
In addition, linking the phrase "under God" to Lincoln's use in the Gettysburg Address is a misunderstanding of the expression's use and meaning. Although that was its reference and justification in the 1950s, the phrase itself did not mean the same thing in 19th century English as we intend it to mean now (or 50 years ago). As Lincoln and many of his contemporaries used it, it had the sense of "God willing." Lincoln was saying that, this nation, with God's help, shall have a new birth of freedom. A very appropriate expression, but somewhat different than the meaning suggested by The Knights of Columbus and George Docherty when they wanted to insert it into the Pledge of Allegiance in the 1950s.
Lastly, as unfortunate as it may seem to some Christians (and as unpopular as it may be in this forum), if the phrase "under God" means what some contemporary Christians understand it to mean, and if it is a forced recital, it does seem to violate the Establishment Clause. Further, if it means what some contemporary Christians want it to mean and we need to force others to say and acknowledge it, then the truth of our convictions depends on the power of coercion and punishment. That's what these students are getting at, and that's what we must engage. Though it is easier to just call them names. Click here to reply to this post
Re: Re: Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School
Posted On: 10/31/07 07:26:24 AM
Age 29, KS
E Pluribus Unum: Out of the many, one.
"And to the diversity, in which our nation stands, *one nation* ..."
I see no contradiction. "E Pluribus Unum" is an expression that a diverse people can be unified, not that a diverse people must be homogenized. Click here to reply to this post
Re: Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School
Posted On: 10/30/07 09:40:47 AM
Age 61, MO
The God of the Holy Scriptures does not grant freedom of religion. He will have all things in Christ. Christianity is not a religion--it is a relationship between individuals and Jesus--a relationship of surrendering completely to Jesus. The "Pledge of Allegiance" that was brought into the public schools should not have been brought there. Adding the phrase "under God" doesn't change the brainwashing nature of the Pledge. Such a pledge teaches that the United States body politic deserves to be elevated no matter what its moral condition may be. The alternate pledge mentioned here is no better. Since one man cannot force another man to come to Christ, it would be best to remove any form of pledge of allegiance from the public schools. The Lords Prayer would be an acceptible alternative. George Cancilla Click here to reply to this post
Re: Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School
Posted On: 10/30/07 08:33:33 AM
Age 34, TX
Pledging allegiance to the flag is un-American to begin with, but not because of the "Under God" part, but because of the "to the republic for which it stands". Do some reading on the history of the origin of the pledge and you will understand what I'm talking about. It was originally written by a defrocked baptist minister (defrocked because of his herracy, unbiblical viewpoints), and was written during the reconstruction period after the civil war. It's purpose was to force the defeated south to pledge allegiance to the FEDERAL government. No self-respecting southerner would ever dare say such a pledge during the civil war time. (The civil war was primarily about states rights, not slavery, so don't even go there.) Click here to reply to this post
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