4.6 One nation, with liberty and justice for all

On Wednesday, the 9th Circuit Appeals Court in California ruled that the words "under God" as recited in classrooms nationwide in the Pledge of Allegiance are unconstitutional because they imply a state sanction of religion. The news media is reporting on the event with a kind of snide amusement, implying that the issue is inherently silly and only some kind of strange fringe types could possibly care so much. After all, even if it were technically true, the words are only there because of tradition or symbolic value, right?

I remember reciting the Pledge in elementary school. Even then, I knew pretty clearly what the Pledge was about. I knew it wasn’t really about a flag—it was about the Republic for which it stands. And I knew that it wasn’t really about that republic, it was about the things that republic stood for. Even in second grade I knew, if only dimly, that there were countries in the world where there was not Liberty and Justice for all. I knew that the freedom to keep the things you made, to go out and have ice cream on Saturday, to make your own decision about being a fireman or a scientist when you grew up was something that other countries couldn’t claim.

Of course, lots of kids knew all this, but I seemed to know something that no one else wanted to talk about. I’m not sure why, but I noticed that if this country was something special, then there had to be a reason. It couldn’t just be an accident. When we studied our country’s history, I began to understand. I learned about the people who came to this country to escape tyranny, about the great thinkers who tried to work out a way to organize a society in which its citizens could be free of that kind of tyranny. I learned about the citizens who went out and faced overwhelming odds in battle to make that vision come true.

In all that history, there were great people and great ideas and great commitment to those ideas, but there was one thing conspicuously absent. I never, in my classes, read about the hand of God coming down from the sky and a booming voice proclaiming, "Let there be Freedom!" The United States, I discovered, was a nation created on this Earth, for human beings, and by human beings—with their own blood and muscles and minds.

In second grade I was already a confirmed atheist. I know this must sound strange to those of you who grew up religious, but you see, this is why I resented it. This is why I found my voice wavering and my face flushing as I recited the Pledge. I couldn’t have put it into words then, but I hated the implication of that little phrase, "under God," because to me the human achievement that America represented was too great, too important to place "under God."

We have heard about the danger that the Pledge, as it is now, alienates children who are not monotheists. And I was alienated. The Pledge was a symbol of the widening philosophical gulf forming between me and the other children. As I silently mouthed those two words every morning I felt not just that speaking them would betray my convictions about religion, but that it would be a betrayal of everything that flag represented. I didn’t know anything about the separation of church and state then, but I knew on some level that our country represented a celebration of human achievement here, in material reality, and that religion, well, didn’t.

News commentators have attempted to reduce this issue to the level of absurdity with the rhetorical question: If we are going to do this, then why not stop putting the words "In God We Trust" on our currency? But the question is legitimate, and the answer is the same—and for the same reason. Money is a symbol of trust. Money represents our trust that when we do some work we can take little pieces of paper in exchange, instead of real goods. Why do we do this? Because we have a basic trust in other people—trust that the money they give us is backed by some real value somewhere, some goods or services. That system allows specialization and division of labor and multi-trillion dollar economies. But it all rests of our willingness to trust in the basic honesty and morality of real, living human beings. So, when you put the words "In God We Trust" on money, it’s like saying about money: "but we don’t really mean it."

And that’s why "under God" should stay out of the Pledge. It’s like saying "America is great and I pledge my allegiance to it… as long as it’s okay with God." Yes, it is a symbolic issue. The Pledge of Allegiance symbolizes our willingness to honor and embrace the ideals on which America was built. The words "under God" symbolize our willingness to modestly bow our heads and refuse to take the credit, to throw away the pride that should rightfully be ours for being part of the first and best attempt to create a truly free society—to say "aw, shucks," for being a part of the greatest nation on Earth.

Unpublished op-ed; 2002.06.26