No Establishment of Monotheism

The reason 'under God' was added to the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" was declared the national motto was to establish monotheism as the official, government endorsed, national religious belief and to promote public fear and animosity against atheists. This happened in 1954 and 1956, during the McCarthy era. The actual target was said to be communism, but Congress incorrectly equated communism with atheism and targeted all atheists and polytheists instead.

The American Sociological Association reports that Americans see atheists as the least trusted minority - the group that they see as least sharing their American values. This is not at all surprising when schools teach children that those American values include 'one nation under God' and 'In God We Trust'. U.S. citizens learn to fear atheism starting on the first day of school, when a government teacher stands in front of them and tells them to recite a patriotic pledge stating that there are four values that run opposite to what all good American support; atheism or polytheism, rebellion, tyranny, and injustice for all.

Allowing young children to sit out the Pledge does not mitigate the harm done. This is typically interpreted as, "Students have freedom of speech, and this means they are free to hold anti-American values if they want to. In opting out of the Pledge, they are showing disrespect for what defines this country as good and special, but one of those special things about this country is that we allow freedom to express even such anti-American values." This simply reinforces the lesson that atheists and polytheists cannot be the best kind of citizens. Rather than mitigating the harm, their exclusion from this government sponsored ritual adds to the harm.

You can imagine the effect it would have on any candidate's chances of winning an election if that candidate were to refuse to say "under God" when reciting the Pledge. Over half of the population says that they would not vote for an atheist candidate. The Pledge of Allegiance law becomes a locked door keeping honest non-monotheists out of public office. This is not at all consistent with democratic values. Exposing adults to career and civic service penalty for not publically expressing popular monotheistic beliefs in their work places is coercive and unethical.

Is our government going to continue to falsely declare that we are a country of monotheists, without atheists and polytheists? Is our government going to continue declare that the four most important American good citizenship values are monotheistic exclusivity, union, and liberty and justice for all?

Soon, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will release their decisions on whether 'under God' in the Pledge and 'In God We Trust' as the national motto violate the Constitution. Other courts may also issue rulings on this and other establishment of monotheism disputes. If the federal courts strike down establishment of monotheism as unconstitutional then please accept that the ruling is reasonable and don't pander to popular, bigoted, monotheistic supremecist outrage.