New Texas Pledge Already In Court

That didn't take long. School has been in session less than a week, and the revised Texas Pledge of Allegiance has already been taken to court. During the last legislative session, right-wing religious nuts in the Texas legislature added the words "one state under God" to the Texas pledge.

These Republican legislators said they were just trying to make the Texas pledge mirror the U.S. pledge. That's nonsense! What on earth is the purpose of making the pledges mirror one another? The only purpose is to force a belief in God on all school children, whether their parents approve of it or not. In a country that espouses freedom of religion (which must include freedom from religion), this is just wrong.

This week, David and Shannon Croft (along with an anonymous John and Jane Doe) took the state to court to eliminate the reference to God from the pledge. They argue that the new pledge discriminates against the children of atheists. They are right.

Even if the children are allowed to leave the room before the pledge is recited, the overall effect is to ostracize these children and set them up for ridicule from other children. After all, fundamentalists and their children are not know for having tolerance for differing views.

This whole new pledge is ridiculous. Texas had a perfectly good pledge that could be recited by all children. But that was not good enough for the religious right, who are not happy unless they can force their own religion on everyone else. They have now converted that pledge into a religious declaration which many cannot make in good conscience.

These people need to learn that being in the majority does not give them the right to try to force their religious views on others. One reason we have a constitution is to prevent the tyranny of the majority. In a truly free country, everyone's rights must be protected.

Many of these people say there is no harm in the pledge. They are wrong. They would be singing a different tune if they were in the minority, and their children were ostracized for not pledging allegiance to a god they did not approve of or believe in. What if the pledge said "one state under Satan"? Would they still think the words were harmless?

Words are not harmless, and no child should be singled out for refusing to pledge allegiance to someone else's god. I thank the Crofts for having the courage to fight this religious intrusion into our schools, and I wish them success in their court fight.