Recently the Supreme Court heard arguments for and against the inclusion of the phrase ‘Under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance. I don’t have any real strong feelings on the debate, after all, we have the words ‘ In God We Trust’ engraved on our coins and it doesn’t seem to affect the value of the dollar. Given a choice though, I would vote to have the phrase ‘Under God’ removed.

The phrase ‘Under God’ was not an original part of the pledge but added afterward in the 1950s. It was at the height of the Cold War and the hearings held by Senator McCarthy demonstrated that it was dangerous to be associated with communism. What better way to separate us from those godless communists than to insert that phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance? Yes, the high moral ground was now exclusively ours. Game, set, and match. Take that you commies.

One of the most oft quoted phrases from the Koran is, “There is but one god, his name is Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger.” If we do a simple word substitution we get the phrase, “…one nation under Allah with….” Hmm, sounds a lot like an Islamic state such as the former Taliban government in Afghanistan. That certainly is not what the advocates of the phrase ‘under God’ mean. For the implication is one of a Christian god and/or Jehovah. Probably the greatest thing our founding fathers gave us was the separation of church and state. Separation of church and state was not a concept inherent to the followers of Islam but rather it is through the influence of western civilization that secularism has found its way into their society.

Although our founding fathers gave us the separation of church and state, fundamentalist Christians seem to want to unite the two at every opportunity. I am surprised that there has not been a formal push to formally amend the Constitution to rescind parts of the first amendment.

Jesus was once asked a politically sensitive question regarding to whom should one swear allegiance: God or Caesar. Jesus held up a coin and asked whose image was imprinted on the coin. The questioner replied, “Caesar, of course.” To which Jesus replied, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.” That sounds a lot like separation of church and state. Given these words of Jesus, I wonder why some people are so adamant about mixing the two

For these reasons and others, I favor a wide separation between church and state. If the boundaries were to become blurred, women would suffer the most. Most major religions of the world are still exclusively men’s clubs. We would also experience the impact of blue laws, morals police and limited freedom of expression. One need only look at the Taliban for a worst case scenario. How long would it be before creationism would be taught in our schools?

Finally, Atheists in this country should be given the same rights as everyone else. I suspect they are tired of having religion stuffed down their throat at every turn.

Recently the Tenth Annual Atheist Alliance International Conference was held in Colorado Springs on Easter weekend. It’s almost automatic that civic leaders welcome visiting groups to the city and the state given the competition for tourist dollars. However, both the Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera and Governor Bill Owens refused to sign a letter welcoming the group. Can you say second class citizens, boys and girls?

A final thought. Over the centuries kings and rulers have taken their countries to war in the name of their god or on the basis of some religious cause. I can’t think of a better reason to keep religion and government as separate as possible.

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