Is the Pledge of Allegiance Too Religious for School?

By karen roach @ Shutterstock.com

A school board in North Dakota has ended its tradition of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before meetings because of the words “under God,” in the pledge. The Blaze’s Paul Sacca reports:

On Tuesday, the Fargo School Board voted 7-2 to stop reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before every meeting.

North Dakota newspaper Inforum reported that a school board member nixed the Pledge of Allegiance because it didn’t align with the district’s diversity, equity, and inclusion values. Some of the school board members contended that the words “under God” were excluding many people.

Fargo School Board member Seth Holden said, “Given that the word ‘God’ in the text of the Pledge of Allegiance is capitalized. The text is clearly referring to the Judeo-Christian god and therefore, it does not include any other face such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, all of which are practiced by our staff and students at FPS.”

You might be able to understand the idea of separation of church and state embedded within Holden’s statement, as it is a part of the First Amendment, but he goes on to attack another clause of the Pledge that reads “with liberty and justice for all.” Sacca writes:

He also stated that it is an “indisputable fact” that “not all U.S. citizens have liberty and justice… therefore making the line ‘one nation with liberty and justice for all’ an untrue statement.”

The idea that American citizens would deny the aspirational nature of America’s constitution and Declaration of Independence, as well as its 246-year history to deliver to its people “liberty and justice for all,” is astounding. Though it has not always worked in practice, Americans don’t recite the pledge to read out history, they recite it to remind themselves and the world of what the American experiment aims to produce, which is most essentially, liberty and freedom for all.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.