By God, This Has Got To Stop

No, Michael Newdow, there is no Santa Claus. But there is a God, even in your life. That's why you can't just have a court strike the word "God" from the Pledge of Allegiance and United States currency to suit the interests of atheists.

Newdow — a doctor, a lawyer and an atheist — has worked for years to get the courts to remove references to God from the currency and the Pledge of Allegiance. He claims the references are unconstitutional, violating a legal fiction called "separation of church and state."

In his latest battle, Newdow couldn't convince a three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — the most liberal federal court in the land — that God should be stricken from currency or the Pledge.

Newdow could save himself a lot of time and expense by accepting the fact our federal courts uphold the laws set forth by the United States Constitution. So-called "separation of church and state" isn't in the Constitution.

On matters of state and religion, the Constitution says this: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

If we had a "separation of church and state" law, it wouldn't keep God off the dollar bill or out of the Pledge. That's because God isn't a church or a religion.

A church, a synagogue, a mosque or a religious philosophy is an establishment of religion. Focus on the Family is an establishment of religion. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is an establishment of religion. The Taliban is an establishment of religion.

The word "God" is not comparable to an organization, a building, a philosophy or a religion. God, unlike an establishment of religion, is a concept to atheists and believers alike. The believer perceives God as the living creator of all. The atheist perceives God as an unfortunate fictional concept that causes war. Either way, this country was founded on respect for a higher power than man — an entity generically referred to as God in the English-speaking world.

The laws of our land protect our right to revere or disavow God, but they do not protect us from hearing and seeing the term. Believer and non-believer alike make up one nation under God, because the first law of the land protects belief or disbelief in God, the right to talk about God, and the right to make God the highest authority in one's life.

Because we're a nation under God — with God as a concept, we are free to love as truth or disavow as fiction — we have never been one nation under Washington, Lincoln, Reagan or Obama. We are a nation that elevates God — whatever God means — above any human authority because we are a nation that elevates an individual's choices above the agendas of authorities.

We're a nation under God for those who believe God is Allah, or Jesus, the Universe, a giant rock, or a fictional concept. God empowers the individuals, and never the state.

Newdow and other atheists who don't like the Pledge of Allegiance should teach their children that "one nation under God" means "one nation under a fictional concept" that Mom and Dad don't care for. They should do that, or simply remove their children from schools that recite the pledge.

When annoyed by currency, atheists have the option of interpreting "in God we trust" as "in a fictional concept we trust" for the sake of limited government. God means Jesus to the Christian, Allah to the Muslim, Brahman to the Hindu and fictional concept to the atheist. God is not "an establishment" of religion. God exists in our language for all to perceive in one way or another.

Atheists who get anxiety-ridden over mentions of God cannot be angry with a fictional concept they do not respect. They're angry with the way some people view God, and the manner in which those people conduct themselves in the name of a religion or higher power. Striking God from money and the Pledge won't do away with the object of their angst.

A country founded on a belief that rights are endowed by a creator, not a government, is a nation under God — whatever God may be. A nation under God will never be a nation under some corruptible man or woman in power. A nation under God will elect its highest human authorities to serve as humble public servants to individuals who are endowed with inalienable rights by a creator commonly referred to as God.

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE

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