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Pledge Debate: Not All Share Enthusiasm for 'Under God' Editor, Times-Dispatch: I am not sure to what specific issue Jason Edelman is referring in his letter, "First Amendment Limits Congress, Not Us," but he is wrong on several points. Although he is correct that the First Amendment and indeed the entire Bill of Rights initially placed limits only on the national government, since 1925 the Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, to apply most of these rights to the states in a process that came to be known as selective incorporation. The freedoms of expression found in the First Amendment were among the first to be applied. And while he is correct that, whether state or national, the Bill of Rights places limits on governments, not individuals, the Court often has to make determinations as to who wins when two rights or freedoms conflict. I suspect the issue addressed in the letter is the Pledge of Allegiance. The First Amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." It seems Congress did exactly that in 1954 when it added the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. How can the phrase "one nation under God," written by the Congress of the United States and recited daily by public employees as a part of their jobs - in many cases mandated by the state for the express purpose of influencing young minds - be anything but a government establishment of religion? At the very least it is a government endorsement of not only a belief in God but in a particular kind of God, one who takes sides among nations. The First Amendment limits not only Congress. It also limits state governments. Bob Alley. Richmond . Editor, Times-Dispatch: The high-passion letters regarding our Pledge of Allegiance make it obvious that the hoo-ha isn't about patriotism and love of country. Once again it's about religion. And isn't it ironic that religious intolerance, the very issue that drove so many colonists to America, has gripped so many of our own people in this day and age of enlightenment? Our cherished, guaranteed freedoms include a lot of personal choices unavailable in many other countries. High on our freedoms list, unlike in some of those countries, is whether we want religion in our individual lives. According to the Time World Almanac, the original Pledge of
Allegiance was first printed in an 1892 issue of American Youth magazine in My advice to those who feel strongly one way or the other is either to say "under God" a little louder or not say those words at all. Either way is okay with me, because that's what freedom and tolerance are all about. Richard G. Carlson. Richmond . Editor, Times-Dispatch: The vitriol exhibited by some of your readers angry over the appellate decision to remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance is downright unChristian. Ted Salins. Richmond . | |||||||
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