To: The Supreme Court of the United States and The General Public

We, the undersigned, hereby affirm our support for the decision by the 9th Circuit of Appeals to ban the use of the "Pledge of Alligiance" in schools, so long as it contains the phrase "under God".

The Constitution is very clear and specific. The First Amendment says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise of."

For the children who practice a religious tradition which does not believe in a single, supreme, all powerful being, such as Pagans, Buddhists and Hindus, or who are Atheists, having a state-sanctioned authority figure proclaim that this is a nation "under God" effectively invalidate their beliefs, and is a clear violation of their constitutional right to freedom from having state imposed religious opinions forced upon them.

The Supreme Court has historically permitted expressions of this sort in other circumstances, based on the doctrine of "civil deism", which states that certain phrases are so well worn as to have lost any significant religious meaning. This is not a tenable position - the reaction to this decision demonstrates that "under God" unquestionably has religious connotations. There is no way that we can have God in the pledge, and in the classroom, and still stay true to the literal meaning of the Constitution.

Restore respect for religious diversity and the Constitution to the classroom, modify the pledge.

For more information on this campaign, visit SavageStupidity.Com or email us at pledgepetition@savagestupidity.com with your comments and feedback.

Sincerely,

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You may also wish to consider sponsoring our parent organization, The Frederick Douglass Society which makes this site possible. Please sign the petition and sponsor our web site. Media Coverage You are not alone in supporting the 9th Circuit's decision - according to the San Francisco Chronicle, calls to congressperson's offices were pretty evenly split each way on this issue. Once again, the people are out ahead of their representatives! "The recitation that ours is a nation 'under God' is not a mere acknowledgment that many Americans believe in a deity. Nor is it merely descriptive of the undeniable historical significance of religion in the founding of the Republic. Rather, the phrase 'one nation under God' in the context of the Pledge is normative. To recite the Pledge is not to describe the United States; instead, it is to swear allegiance to the values for which the flag stands: unity, indivisibility, liberty, justice, and -- since 1954 -- monotheism. The text of the official Pledge, codified in federal law, impermissibly takes a position with respect to the purely religious question of the existence and identity of God. A profession that we are a nation 'under God' is identical, for Establishment Clause purposes, to a profession that we are a nation 'under Jesus,' a nation 'under Vishnu,' a nation 'under Zeus,' or a nation 'under no god,' because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion." --Judge Alfred T. Goodwin, majority opinion for himself and Judge Stephen Reinhardt An atheist's quirky devotion challenges a schoolroom rite By Rene Sanchez, Washington Post, 6/29/2002 LOS ANGELES - He's a suburban single dad with degrees in medicine and law who for the past few years has devoted his life to one cause: advancing the separation of church and state. Michael Newbow, 49, is also an atheist. He did not like it when he heard that his daughter was being asked to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at a public elementary school near Sacramento because it includes the phrase ''under God.'' So he filed a lawsuit, taking the case to court on his own. [...] History Of Pledge Of Allegiance The Guardian, UK, Thursday June 27, 2002 12:40 AM [...] Pledge I rattled off as kid was God-less By JOHN HAHN, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST, Saturday, June 29, 2002 It took me years to remember that we were "one nation, under God," and now we are once again, officially and by federal appellate-court ruling, God-less. The striking down as unconstitutional the requirement for recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance (revised, 1954 edition) this week by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because of that "under God" part, will no doubt precipitate some impassioned July Fourth speeches. (The judge who wrote the opinion has since put the ruling on hold until other judges on the court decide whether to rehear the case.) There were impassioned speeches back in 1954, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the congressional act inserting "under God" into the pledge. [...] Pledging Allegiance To Fundamentalism David Corn, AlterNet, June 28, 2002 A Christian socialist who turned his back on religion. That's the guy whose handiwork politicians of both parties and religious right leaders rushed to defend this past week. Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister in upstate New York who sermonized against the materialism of the Gilded Age and who resigned from his church after businessmen cut off funding because of his socialist activities and lectures, wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892. Now his words, composed for a magazine-sponsored school program celebrating the quadricentennial of Columbus Day, are treated as a sacred writ. Holy irony! [...] Little heat for 'no' vote on pledge Reps. Stark, Honda opposed resolution to reverse court's decision Mark Simon, Chronicle Political Writer, San Francisco Chronicle, June 29, 2002 When Rep. Barbara Lee stood alone last September in voting against waging war on international terrorism, the Berkeley Democrat found herself in a firestorm of criticism calling into question her patriotism. When Bay Area Reps. Mike Honda and Fortney "Pete" Stark cast two of the three votes Thursday against a resolution defending the Pledge of Allegiance, they elicited a more balanced response. Their patriotism was questioned by some constituents, but others praised their votes of conscience. [...] The resolution passed the House 416-3 and the Senate 99-0. The other dissenting vote was cast by Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. [...] Throughout the Bay Area, congressional office staff said calls were coming in from constituents at a higher-than-usual rate, most of it evenly split between support and opposition for the court's decision. [...]