Bring in some more flags
Thursday, June 27th, 2002because the politicians are all wrapping themselves in stars and stripes this week. At issue is a ruling by a federal appeals court declaring that requiring students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance violates their religious freedom. The Senate has rushed to declare the Court was wrong and laid plans to intervene on behalf of the Pledge and against the First Amendment.
Refusing to stand and participate in the Pledge has been getting school children in trouble with school authorities for generations. But the law is on their side: the Supreme Court ruled in 1943 that the state cannot “prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion….” Students cannot be compelled to affirm their loyalty “by word or act.”
Those who express contempt for this week’s court ruling conveniently forget why we have legal protection for religious freedom. It’s because we have a long and shameful history of religious intolerance and persecution. The 1943 case involved the religious freedom of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which was far from trivial. In 1940 alone, there were 3,035 reported instances of mob violence against Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States.
The Pledge, was, by the way, written by a Socialist named Francis Bellamy. Bellamy, a Baptist minister, didn’t include “under God” in the original Pledge.
