Friday, September 28, 2007

Texas one state under God and indivisible

Texas has added the words "under God" to the pledge to the Texas flag. Read about it here:

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa070504_wz_pledge.36c0f04d.html

Now, this is where I ramble. I am a Christian. Our country has its roots in the judeo-christian religion. I am more than glad to pledge to our state or nation as under God, and I don't support removing this phrase from our US pledge. I am torn, however, about adding it to our state pledge.

This may not make much sense, but because when we first wrote our constitution, there was little diversity compared to nowdays, it wasn't a big deal to have "under God" as part of our pledge. Now, it is simply tradition, and history, in my mind's eye. But, to add it to a pledge in this day and age, seems like it is disrespectful of other people. God gave us free will, and told us to obey his laws first, and then the laws of the land. One of our laws is that we shall not mix government and religion, or establish any national religion, etc. By adding the phrase in question, it would seem as if we are unofficially establishing the judeo-christian religion... what about atheists (who I fully believe to be wrong, and confused individuals in need of our prayers, but who nonetheless are not second class citizens because of their beliefs) or muslims, or buddhists, etc.? Should they be required to acknowledge a deity in which they don't believe in order to pledge allegiance to our country? I really don't think so. I feel that forcing any sort of religious anything on people only serves to turn them further away from believing what I consider to be the Truth. God gave us free will to believe or not to believe. Who is our government to say otherwise? Keep our government free of religion, or one day it may be our religion that is being disrespected, and a different religion entirely endorsed by our government. It is imperative that our government not sponsor any religion. Let God move people's hearts, not the government.

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