Freedom of Religion? Most Americans Don’t Buy It
According to a recent Rasmussen survey:
“Seventy-seven percent (77%) of U.S. voters say school children should say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Just 13% say they should not, and nine percent (9%) are undecided. Eighty-two percent (82%) say the words “under God” should remain in the Pledge as well. Fourteen percent (14%) think the phrase should be dropped from the Pledge, and just four percent (4%) have no opinion.”
Frankly, this appalls me. I’m all about patriotism, but this is taking it too far. Since I was a little girl I’ve been an atheist. I’ve been to church, I’ve listened to religious friends and family members explain their beliefs to me, but it’s never been a particularly compelling lifestyle. Furthermore I find it impossible to believe that there is a higher being. There is nothing short of ending up in the pits of hell that will convince me otherwise. So you can imagine my confusion when I entered elementary school and was required to say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning. I could deal with standing and putting my hand over my heart, but I when I got to the words “one nation under God” a feeling of anxiety washed over me. I said the words but something didn’t feel right to me. The minute I got home after school, I asked my mom what to do. She told me that it’s perfectly all right to sit down during the Pledge. Yet, I was 6, and the thought of sitting down while all my classmates stood was mortifying. So I decided that I would substitute “under frog” for “under God” or just skip that part altogether.
Feeling relieved, I went to school the next day. However, when I said “under frog” my classmates heard me. I was ridiculed for not saying the right word. The next day I didn’t say anything at all. Again, my classmates noticed and one even called out to the teacher, “She didn’t say under God!!” The sheer humiliation I felt was so intense I still remember it today. I felt like I was doing something wrong, like I didn’t fit in with the other students. It was my first brush with standing out from the crowd, but as a shy six year old who had never even been in “time out,” it was not an experience I relished.
Over the years I continued to omit the words, or just give up and say them when I wasn’t in the mood to have attention drawn to me. When I was in 4th grade, for the first time I had a teacher who told the class that they didn’t have to stand and say the Pledge if they didn’t want to. When I was one of the only students sitting down, I felt like I was in first grade all over again. I couldn’t bear the stares of my fellow classmates. Honestly, I was more than happy when, in high school, the tradition became infrequent.
So, if you hadn’t already guessed, the anecdote from my childhood serves as an example of why forcing schoolchildren to say the Pledge of Allegiance is problematic. I don’t believe in any god, but what about the Muslim children who believe in Allah? What about the kids who believe in a Goddess? What about the separation of church and state? I might add that I attended public schools my entire life. There is no room for religion in the classroom, and that’s something our forefathers intended.
The irony of the whole situation is that “under God” was introduced to the Pledge in the 1950’s due to McCarthyism and fear of communists. Of course, it was rather naïve to think that communists would not say the Pledge of Allegiance just because of the phrase “under God”. (Obviously, if all it took to escape being labeled a communist was to say that phrase, they’d say it). But to force children to say “under God,” when it is not necessarily their belief is harmful. Education is meant to teach children to question, to think, and to express themselves. Education does not mean indoctrination. It does not mean we should be teaching our children what to think. Our right to freedom of religion is protected by the Constitution, and true “Patriots” would place emphasis on that document rather than attempting to spread their faith in the public school system.
It’s time to face facts. The United States of America has no official religion. It has no official language. We are a multicultural society and I’ll be damned if children will be indoctrinated to think that Christianity is the only patriotic system of beliefs. For the record: it’s not.
- Dollface
P.S. Rush Limbaugh can take this post and shove it up his ass.
(Search for his name in this link for his thoughts on this timely debate)
Related Links:
- In Defense of the Original, Secular Pledge of Allegiance
- Donklephant‘s take on the issue
- It’s Time to Update the Pledge
Wow, that is a WHOLE lot of pledge.. yikes!
I think it is more important to change the word “flag” to “constitution”. Then take any reference of a deity out.
My dad is a fan of Rush Limbaugh. And, whenever I say something remotely liberal, my dad quotes Rush Limbaugh. *headdesk*
I’m all for patriotism too, but I always felt like a drone pledging allegiance to the flag. So, I would stand up and put my hand over my heart, but I wouldn’t say anything. I think my teacher said something to me once, but I just kind of ignored her. My classmates never mocked me either.
I thought “One nation under God” was in always in the pledge, I didn’t realize it was added in during the 1950s. Lame.
I was one of those kids too who didn’t say it. We were never forced to say it, but we were forced to stand while everyone else said it and to take our hats off if we had any.
I’m just glad we no longer have to do the Bellamy salute. I’m not a big fan of saluting.
according to the muslims their god is the same as the christian and jewish god. the word that you used in the article “allah” translates to god in arabic so even arab christians use the world allah to refer to ‘god’.
Okay, I totally sympathize with your experience of feeling singled out and alone in your elementary school class, but I love the idea of replacing “under God” with “under frog!” What a creative kid you were, dollface! ;)
Seriously though, as a Buddhist it kind of weirds me out that every kid in the United States has to say “under God,” because, like you, I don’t believe in any god. Makes me feel like I’m not a true American for not being able to honestly say the Pledge of Allegiance. And it especially freaks me out because I know the God these kids are “supposed” to be thinking of is white, male, and bearded–a *Christian* god. And while the fact that so many people are opposed to taking the words “under God” out doesn’t surprise me (people resist change after all, even when they know it’s good), it still disturbs me. It makes me wonder, when will it change?
Yay for more posting, dollface, but when am I going to see part 2 in the “Why I’m a feminist” series? *Prods you with a poky stick*
have you seen jesus camp?
i just saw it a couple weeks ago, and everything about religion reminds me of it (including this post).
i’m scared to death of organized religion.
Thanks for your comments, guys.
@ NOT — Interesting idea, I like it.
@ Jackie — That’s true, even the rest of the pledge makes me feel like a drone or a patriotic zombie. Yeah, the other funny thing about the pledge was that it was created in the 1800′s…it has NOTHING to do with our founding fathers OR the constitution.
@ Lena — I’m not a fan of saluting either. It’s nice to hear I wasn’t the only one sitting down.
@ LOL — This may be true. Either way, why should we make them say God instead of Allah. A translation still doesn’t cut it.
@ Dolly — Great comment. I will be posting the part 2 in the series on Monday. I promise!
@ Mermaid — I have seen Jesus Camp! It’s TERRIFYING.
Honestly, I think a lot of non-Americans first-worlders find the fact that we pledge at all a bit weird. I never gave it a second thought growing up, but once I started to travel it was something that people were always asking me about … well, after they asked me if I ate McDonalds everyday and if I owned an SUV.
I’m a fairly spiritual person (read: “non-denominational” pagan nutter) and while I didn’t come to my own little hodge-podge belief system til my late teens / early twenties, the whole damn pledge upsets me. Once I started middle school, I refused to recite the pledge. My teachers informed me that I HAD to at least stand, out of respect. I also refused. It nearly led to my expulsion…from a PUBLIC SCHOOL. How absurd…is it so wrong if a pre-teen doesn’t find it acceptable to pledge themselves to anything?
Maybe I sound like a bitter bitch, but I find it highly disturbing. It’s one form (albeit, a minor one) of brainwashing children. I frankly do not feel any need to pledge myself to this country, and I did not back then either.
So how about this: instate universal health care (that actually covers transgender health issues!), allow people to marry whomever they damn well please, and actually treat the murder of gay, bisexual, and transgender people appropriately, instead of half-assing it or ignoring the situation altogether, and perhaps I’ll pledge myself to the government. In the meantime, I’ll show my support for my community by doing what I always do: being a decent human being.
I knew a kid who was a US citizen, but she lived in australia from when she was 6months to 7years old and was a naturalised australian. She didn’t like saying the pledge (at a public school) so she stood up, but didn’t say it. If the teacher called her on it she just made up an excuse like she had lost her voice or something.
She is a christian, she just didn’t like the idea of pledging allegiance to the flag (or the US in general). Also I think she disagreed with the idea that the US is a nation under God. Clearly the president of the US does not consult god when making decisions, except for maybe the god of mammon.
When I was in the US the pledge really really creeped me out. a whole room full of people standing up, turning the the big-arse flag on the wall, hand over heart, reciting. I think the scariest thing was not the emotion that went into it, but the fact that teenagers did it, with emotion. To me teenagers are the ones who should be rebelling against that stuff. Mixing up the words to say rude things, but none of them did. Scary stuff.