Thursday, August 02, 2007

Texas Adds "Under God" To State Pledge For School Kids

Far be it for the Great State of Texas to do anything half-assed. Now the state pledge, something I have never heard of in all my years of Texas public schooling, has the words "under God" added to it. You see, here in the Lone Star State, we like to try to insinuate our religion into every aspect of public life, from prayers at football games to forcing children to acknowledge a Deity in their "pledge to the state".

Now here's where I get riled up. I was raised in the Jewish faith, but as an elementary school student I was made to participate in prayers at the beginning of each school day, and many of them ended in , "in Jesus name we pray." I gotta tell you it made me feel strange. I felt like a liar and dishonest to my religious upbringing. Strangely enough, despite the fact that I saw this kind of blatant state sponsored religion, I ended up converting to Christianity.

It still gets me mad when people try to force our kids to add God to their school day. God is far to important and personal to be legislated by a state full of crazy people like Texas. Leave religion to the kids parents and to the churches, synagogues, temples and mosques.

The next time some jerk tries to tell you that saying "under God" is not promoting a state religion, ask him or her how about if we said "under Lord Krishna" or "under Allah" instead and watch the puzzled look on their face. Most of these folks haven't got a clue that there are other religions, much less other names for God. Personally, I feel that the State Pledge borders on idolatry and could arguably be considered blasphemy. Therefore, I will refer to the Bible for what to do about blasphemes.

On second thought, maybe I will just shake my head and walk away. I love Texas, and I figure I will live out my life here, but I sure as heck get fighting mad at some of the bone headed folks we manage to raise here.

No comments: