6/27 If the media did their job and actually included a history of the
Pledge of Allegiance with their reports on the decision, the uproar
would be a blip from Gary Bauer or Pat Robertson. --scotsman
\_ If they ever did their job, if they ever could have done their job.
||| THE 'UNDER GOD' PHRASE was inserted in the Pledge of Allegiance
because of a McCarthy-era campaign by a right-wing Catholic group, the
Knights of Columbus. The KOC is now deeply involved in anti-abortion
campaigning by the Catholic Church and was once an important supporter
of the notorious Legion of Decency, which censored American films and
was the source of the phrase "banned in Boston." So not only are the
words "under God" clearly religious, they have their origins in the
theocratic maneuverings of one particular religion. Ironically, until
recently the Catholic Church did not consider Christian fundamentalists
covered by the very phrase they today so loudly champion. The theology
of salvation by faith alone was anathematized by Rome. |