Religious Liberty E.lert

June 29, 2002

LEGISLATIVE E.LERT !!!!!!

 "One Nation Under God?"

     In 1954, in the passion of the cold war, the U.S. Congress added the phrase "under God" to the pledge of allegiance. America needed the reminder that God was on our side. It was a classic example of American civil religion. Civil religion is the combination of religion and public life, and especially political life. Secularists resent civil religion, because they see it as an unfair promotion of religion in general, and Christianity in particular. So they attack the vestiges of civil religion, like "under God" in the pledge.
     For Christians, civil religion poses an even greater quandary. On the one hand, it is good for Americans to remember and respect God in our public life. God is not a matter of opinion. He is real, and we do well to acknowledge His providence and His care for our country. On the other hand, civil religion is not Christian. Christianity requires man to humbly submit to the will of God. Civil religion invokes God's name and His blessing on human ambitions, on American policies, on the aspirations of politicians to get elected. God is impressed into the service of man. This is fundamentally pagan.
The Adventist Church does not endorse the radical anti-religious distortion of a secular and pluralist society that would banish all references to God from public life. True pluralism requires a respect for religious elements in society, including respect for public references to God, however theologically compromised they might be. Moreover, occasional public acknowledgements of our religious heritage do not transform an essentially secular government into a religious one. 
     The Adventist Church has been a strong supporter of the separation of church and state. The Constitution requires government to stay out of the business of religion, not promoting religious practices. The recitation of the pledge is NOT a religious activity. It is a patriotic activity. Invoking the religious character of our people is NOT a constitutional violation, it is a recognition of an historical fact. Similarly, putting "in God we trust" on the coins does not coerce anyone into trusting God. It is not asking anyone to modify their beliefs. While it may be a religious act to express trust in God, the motto on our coins is not so much an act of government expressing trust in God as it is an acknowledgment of the religious character of the American people, and their historic trust in God.
    "Under God" in the pledge does not violate liberty of conscience by coercing people to believe in God. No one is required to say the pledge, nor is anyone asked to believe anything. It is a far cry from imposing actual religious activities, like congregational prayer in public schools, or devotional Bible readings.
    A false and extreme position on liberty of conscience will tend to devalue genuine violations of this most precious God-given freedom.
    Although the decision of the Ninth Circuit striking down the pledge has been rightly criticized, the greater danger is from the political backlash. What we don't need is more politicizing of religion. The good news is that the decision creates a political necessity to deliver for the religious community, and we have just the thing - the Workplace Religious Freedom Act. So please redouble your efforts to contact your U.S. Senators and House members to support this bill, S-2572.

[We received several e.mails asking for our commentary on this decision. The most timely reactions to the decision I received were vitriolic, and devoid of substance. We are willing to sacrifice something in timeliness to insure that our commentary is worth reading. We also seek to limit the total number of e.mail releases, to avoid filling up your inbaskets. This past week has been especially busy, but rest assured that we will continue to use restraint in the future. Thank you for your understanding.]


____________________________________________________________

The Religious Liberty E.lert and Legislative E.lertsare occasional publications of the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Department of Public Affairs & Religious Liberty. If you join the list, please send notice to parl@puconline.org .
You are encouraged to forward this to those who may be interested. Please do not post on the world wide web without prior permission.

Director, Alan J. Reinach, Esq., ajreinach@earthlink.net ; 805-497-9457 ext.398. 
Associate Director Bradford Newton, bcnewton@pacbell.net ; 916-446-2552. 

For assistance with a religious liberty problem, contact any of the above persons. [We serve five western states, including Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Hawaii. For problems outside our area, we can refer to someone more local.]

To subscribe to Liberty magazine, or to make a contribution for sending Liberty to thought leaders, please make check payable to Pacific Union Conference, and mail to: 2686 Townsgate Road, Westlake Village, CA 91361.