Catholic Group calls for CA teachers to break law and recite full pledge

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/175/story_17501_1.html

A conservative Catholic watchdog group is urging California teachers to disobey an anticipated ban on public school recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Judge Lawrence K. Karlton of the U.S. District Court in Sacramento ruled Wednesday (Sept. 14) that he was bound by a 2002 appeals court ruling that "the pledge is an unconstitutional violation of the children's right to be free from a coercive requirement to affirm God."

"The time has come for patriotic teachers in those schools to practice civil disobedience," said William Donohue, president of the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

"They need to lead their students in the pledge, bellowing the dreaded words `under God."

[Aristus]

1. The entire pledge. (Original wording) :

"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."


Nothing about God.........

[mitchtv]

2. I grew up reciting it that way

In Catholic school.
It always reminds me of Bob Dylan's "god on our side", when I hear the Eisenhower version.
* well not the origional version, but the modern one without God. Jees I'm not that old!

[Cleita]

5. That's the one I used to say in school. n/t

[SheilaT]

3. I'm old enough

that I was in school already when they added the "under God" part to the Pledge. In Catholic school. And the nuns were not at all happy about the addition. They did not feel it had any place in the secular Pledge. And yes, we recited it every morning.

[drmom]

4. Did no one else study American history in school???

From my rusty memory, I seem to recall that the many founders of this country fled their homelands because of religious persecution. Therefore, when establishing this government, they wanted to clearly separate church and state. Surely even the most simple minds can see the benefit in this for all citizens. Does every Catholic, for example, expect all of the people they encounter each day to believe just as they do? We have a widely diverse population, and the job of government should be to incorporate all people, not exclude them.

This is basic stuff.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. ONE NATION UNDER "BOB"!!!

Dammit.