YAY for ACTUAL Separation of Church and State at Last!!!!!!

[queerbychoice]

I LOVE CALIFORNIA!!!!!

The author of the article should also have noted that the words "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency were also added during the Cold War (although they were used intermittently on a few coins in the Civil War too).

And most hilariously:

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., was one of many lawmakers who immediately reacted in anger and shock to the ruling.
"Our Founding Fathers must be spinning in their graves. This is the worst kind of political correctness run amok," Bond said. "What's next? Will the courts now strip 'so help me God' from the pledge taken by new presidents?"

The Founding Fathers, of all people for him to invoke - they were spinning in their graves when the words "under God" and "In God We Trust" were added in the first place. And the Presidential Oath of Office? The Constitution provides the words for the Presidential Oath of Office verbatim, as the Founding Parental Units intended. It reads:

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--'I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.' [U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1]

Which reminds me, while we're on the topic, I think it was who recently reminded me of the Separation of State and Church Quiz from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Go take it.

Comments

[annaclaire.livejournal.com]

BEST COURT RULING EVER.

btw, i have been a member of FFRF since i was 18!
i just got their newspaper in the mail yesterday.

[curare.livejournal.com]

it's about time. goddamn.
i'm still worried it'll get
overturned by the supreme court.

[elfbabe.livejournal.com]

So far, I've had three people tell me about this - tommyx was the first one on my friends page to put it up, my dad emailed me, and now you posted it. Neat.

I managed to get all of the questions on the FFRF quiz right. Go me.
(yes, it was partly guessing, but I actually knew some of the obscure ones for certain)

[drood.livejournal.com]

I can hear my mother applauding from the grave. She always made us abstain from the pledge when we were growing up. I hated being the only kid in class not saying the pedge of allegiance, but as an adult I was in full support of the sentiment.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

I always abstained because I was an angry kindergarten atheist activist. My mother's an agnostic who couldn't have cared less.

I have traumatic memories of a third grade field trip - the class was having a picnic under some trees and just discussing things freely without teacher intervention, and it morphed into a spontaneous "Raise your hands if you . . ." session and suddenly some kid said, jokingly, in an of-course-everyone's-going-to-raise-their-hands-for-this-one tone of voice, "Raise your hands if you believe in God." Everybody raised their hands except me, and they all looked around, and some well-intentioned kid told me, "Hey Cindy, raise your hand." No, I said. Her: "No, you didn't hear, they said raise your hand if you believe in God." She reached out and helpfully tried to physically raise my hand for me. No, I said. Her: "But you believe in God, right? So raise your hand!"

No. No. No. No.

They were all staring at me. For weeks afterward I could swear they were all walking a little further away from me in the hallways and giving me funny looks. I think a lot of the third graders hadn't known they'd ever even met an atheist before. My friends kept asking me questions and wanting to have long talks about it. "But don't you feel God's presence at all? Don't you ever hear him talking to you? You must have sensed him lots of times, I always do!"

I looked a friend who said that to me in the eye once and asked, "You mean you hallucinate? Really?"

[ksuzy.livejournal.com]

That happens to my son a lot... he says he does not believe in God, and all the kids in his class try to tell him why he should, and tell him he's going to go to hell, etc. and he comes home angry that they won't just leave him alone about it! (But this is the Bible belt). Where did you grow up?

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Right here in Sacramento, alas. The adults around here are occasionally slightly more educated than the third-graders, though.

Re:

[ksuzy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I idealize living in what seem like more progressive communities.... I dream of living in New York or San Francisco or something, because over 60% of people here where I live go to church every week, which is twice as much as the national percentage, and I think it would be so much better somewhere else... but I hear from others who have lived in these more "progressive" communities that they have similar problems. Maybe the solution is to leave the country altogether. What do you think?

[epanastatis.livejournal.com]

The only possible drawback to this ruling is that, when I try to train any eventual spawn not to make loyalty oaths to U.S. imperialism, it means there will be one fewer explanation to give to the teachers.

[meltingpanda.livejournal.com]

Isn't it great? *does happy panda dance*

I've abstained from saying the pledge for quite a while. Once in 8th grade a substitute teacher noticed a friend and I talking during the pledge and tried to chew us out until we consented to say it alone in front of the class, which I didn't. Once I explained my objections to the pledge (Including the "Under God" idiocy) and he saw that I wasn't just mindlessly rebelling, he actually took quite a liking to me.

[ksuzy.livejournal.com]

That's the greatest thing I have ever heard (except the two Supreme Court death penalty rulings recently). BUT... it will probably be overturned... America's not quite ready for that, I don't think.

[noog.livejournal.com]

*laugh* One of the first things that came to my mind, upon reading the news story-- besides it's about damn time-- was, "Of course it was the 9^th Circuit Court. Only in this region of the country would the Pledge of Allegiance be declared unconstitutional."

Of course, I don't have much faith in the verdict being upheld because of, well, the rest of the country-- but this just affirms my belief that the west coast is the best place in this country one could possibly live.

[dragkingvenus.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's about time you guys suceeded... and speaking for the state of Wisconsin, we will happily join you :o)
I'll take "godless communism" over mindless patriotism any day.

[noog.livejournal.com]

*laugh* I hope so. But being a sometime college student in the Midwest (small town in Illinois, to be exact), I don't hold up much hope for that region of the country.

Love your icon, by the way.

[boycottbigotry.livejournal.com]