More Religious Nonsense For Texas

A few years ago Texas had a short pledge that any citizen could recite with pride.   The pledge said,   "Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one and indivisible." But that wasn't good enough for the state's right-wing fundamentalists.   They felt that only god-believers should be able to recite the state pledge, so they amended the pledge to include the words "one state under God" (which was inserted right before the words "one and indivisible").

Of course this defeats the purpose of the pledge.   A pledge should unite citizens to support their state, but the religious addition actually divided citizens.   The unnecessary addition meant that millions of Texans could no longer feel comfortable saying the pledge (at least 2.5 to 3 million Texans, since more than 10% of the population do not believe in god, and most of those resent having god-belief shoved on them without their permission).

But it turns out the right-wing fundie legislators made a mistake when they passed the law.   While they changed the pledge that is recited in some schools and government meetings, they forgot to include the pledge that is said when a Texas flag (pictured above) is retired.   And since they didn't designate the change also applied to flag retirement ceremonies, by law the old pledge (without god) is still recited at those ceremonies.

Can you imagine the horror of fundie christian right-wingers when they learned of this oversight?   That meant that millions of atheists, agnostics and skeptics could (and probably do) still recite the pledge at these flag-retiring ceremonies.   That just wouldn't do!   Only god-believers should be able to recite the pledge!

But the egregious mistake is about to be rectified.   State Senator Glenn Hegar (R-Katy) is introducing a bill in the new legislature when it meets in January to put the phrase "one state under God" into the flag retirement pledge.   After all, the state can't have the millions of non-religious Texans reciting the pledge in any kind of ceremony!

This is nothing short of ridiculous.   Millions of Texans are without jobs and are having trouble feeding their families.   Texas is the worst polluting state in the nation.   More than a quarter of all Texans have no health insurance (between 6 and 7 million).   Texas schools are hurting, with teachers being laid off and nearly 30% of students failing to graduate high school.   And the state is facing a $25 billion deficit for the next biennium.   And yet, Sen. Hegar is worried about inserting god into the pledge.

It's a good thing Texas doesn't have any real problems, so legislators like Hegar can devote his time to further dividing Texans instead of helping them.   He has forgotten (or doesn't care) that freedom of religion also includes the right to be free from religion (and his bill is a violation of that right).