One Nation Under God?

I'm sure many of you (who am I kidding...no one reads my blog), like me receive unsolicited "forwards" from friends and family. Every once in awhile I feel the need to write back - and CC everyone on the forward list. Here's one such response.

I'm a-ok with everyone believing what they want about God, but to suggest that our county is, and was, designed to be a Christian nation is not only offensive to people of other reasoning, but simply untrue.

Quoting the Constitution of the United States...in fact these are the very first words of the very first amendment....

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

There is often debate about what exactly the First Amendment means, however, in an 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists, Thomas Jefferson made very clear what it meant...

To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.

Gentlemen

The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.

Th Jefferson
Jan. 1. 1802.

The above letter can be found on the Library of Congress website...here.

As far as "under God" being in our pledge to the flag, there's a full history of this found here. The basics are thusly...

It was originally written in 1892, and was worded...

"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

In 1924 "my flag" was changed to "the flag of the United States of America".

It wasn't until 1954, that "under God" was added, and it was done so for political reasons dealing with the Cold War and fear of communism more than anything else.

Lastly, the notion that this song never received airplay because it was "politically incorrect" is also a complete falsehood. Snopes.com is a site which gets to the bottom of many of these email forwards, and lets you know which ones are actually true, and which ones are bunk. This one is complete bunk. You can read it all here.

OK...I guess this turned into a bit more of a rant then intended, but before people forward emails they should make dang sure what they're forwarding is true.