June 30, 2005
Last week’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional has caused millions of Americans to rise up in anger over this absurd ruling. Fortunately, the judge who issued the decision put a stay on it the following day in order to allow time for appeals.
My grandchildren who attend California public schools will be impacted by this foolish decision. I am deeply offended by this ruling and pray that more rational judges will overturn it on appeal.
While it is unlikely that this decision will stand, it certainly points out the need for the appointment of federal judges who understand the history of religious freedom in this nation. We also need judges who believe their job is to interpret the law, not create it.
For more than a year, ultra-liberal Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has managed to stonewall dozens of President Bush’s federal judge nominees. These are judges who respect the Constitution and are committed to judicial restraint. They aren’t judicial activists who seek to use their powers to engage in social engineering for liberal causes. This is why they’re being held up by the pro-abortion and pro-homosexual Senator Leahy. His hypocrisy is showing on the Pledge issue. A year ago, he had dropped the words ‘so help me God’ from the oath administered to Senate witnesses. Now, he’s claiming to be alarmed at the court’s decision banning the Pledge of Allegiance. It must be an election year.
I am calling upon all Americans to express their outrage at the Senate for blocking decent judges to the federal bench. One way to express this outrage is to sign an online petition asking President Bush to use his powers to make recess appointments of judges when the Senate is on vacation. This petition is online at: http://www.ConservativePetitions.com. If the Senate won’t act, the President must.
Oddly enough, the Pledge of Allegiance decision has been met with a strange silence by the liberal National Education Association (NEA), a pawn of the sodomy lobby in the U.S. The NEA, which loudly condemned the Supreme Court’s decision permitting school choice through vouchers, has gone mute over the Pledge ruling. The NEA can’t be silenced in its condemnation of vouchers and a persistent call for the promotion of homosexuality to young children, but why hasn’t it spoken out about the Pledge of Allegiance decision? Parents would do well to find out if their local schools are having children recite the Pledge each day.
The Pledge decision has prompted the Senate to reaffirm the ‘One Nation Under God’ reference in S. 2690, an Act that will undoubtedly be passed by both Houses very soon. The Act notes that on July 4, 1776, America’s Founding Fathers issued a Declaration of Independence from Britain. In this Declaration, they appealed to the Laws of Nature, and of Nature’s God and then boldly asserted: ‘We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.’
If given the chance, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals would probably rule that the Declaration of Independence is also unconstitutional because it refers to a Creator and God. (One can only wonder how the NEA would react if children began reciting the Declaration once a week in school.) The robed tyrants on the 9th Circuit court might also declare our Constitution to be ‘unconstitutional’ because it refers to the ‘Year Of Our Lord’ in Article VII of this historic document.
As we celebrate America’s liberty this July 4th, let us remember the words of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration, who wrote in 1781: ‘God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the Gift of God. That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.’
This July 4th, let us also remember the words of James Madison, known as the Father of the Constitution, who wrote: ‘We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.’
Related Stories & Links:
Defending the Pledge of Allegiance
Carman: Under God
“Pledge Case” Another Test of Faith?
USATODAY
Go to Pastor’s Corner
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