One Nation, Under God

A few days ago, I saw a bumper sticker that proclaimed the message, "One Nation, Many Faiths." This was apparently in opposition to the "One Nation, Under God" stickers that are seen everywhere following the California federal court decision against reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in schools.

The owners of the stickers might disagree, but both messages are correct. It is indeed an American principle that people of any faith (or even none at all) are free to choose how they will or won't worship. This idea is an outgrowth of the even older American reliance on the Christian God as the foundation of our form of government.

"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…" These words from our Declaration of Independence illustrate that from the very beginning, America has recognized that human rights are a gift of God, not something created by government. The freedom of religion is one of those rights.

Yet the legal movement to remove any reference to God from public affairs has been accelerating. Displays of the Ten Commandments have been banned from public schools, courthouses and other public property. Religious clubs have been denied equal access to public school grounds. Voluntary high school graduation prayers, or references to God in valedictory speeches, have been prohibited. Now even "One Nation, Under God" in the pledge is under attack in the courts.

Those who support these court decisions claim to be acting in defense of the freedom of religion. Yet they are systematically blasting away chunks of the very foundation of that freedom. Without our reliance on God, we have no basis for freedom of religion, or of anything else. Without our Creator, what can "endowed by their Creator" possibly mean? Anyone who wants to worship anything other than the Christian God of the American majority ought to be jealously guarding the source of the right to do so: Americans' reliance on God.

This is not to say that we should move toward an established religion. That is not only unconstitutional, but it would be unhealthy for believers of all sorts. Europe, with its state churches, has become a spiritual wasteland where few of the nominal Christians actually hold any religious beliefs or attend churches.

In America, establishment of religion could start in the form of state- supported "faith-based" charities, for example. Such taxpayer subsidies are more dangerous for the churches involved than they are for the state, since they open the door to state subversion of what is taught in the participating churches. The same is true of "vouchers" to support parochial schools. Supporters of religious education should avoid such schemes as poison for their cause.

There is indeed a tightrope walk between establishment of religion and establishment of non-religion. We can't afford to fall from either side of that rope. But right now we are dangerously overbalanced on the side of establishing non-religion.

Americans, along with our government, need to recognize and proclaim that our nation's foundation is the principle that God gives us our rights. Unless America can remain "under God," it will no longer be an America worth having.