A CASE OF MISDIRECTED PATRIOTISM

The founding fathers admonished us to remain ever vigilant against
encroachments on our liberties, and God directed us to place no other Gods
before him.  Understanding and accepting these directives calls into
question our acquiescence to the near universal practice, in the nation's
government schools, of indoctrinating our politically naïve, impressionable
children with the daily recital of what constitutes a secular prayer of
submission to the omnipotent State.  This subject was prompted by the recent
decision at my own school to begin each day this year by pledging allegiance
to "Old Glory".  This loyalty oath to our national government, (symbolized
by the flag) will be ironically preceded by the implementation this year of
a new Virginia law that mandates one minute of silence at the start of each
school day.  While the government is absolutely intolerant of any public
expression of faith, acknowledgement, or allegiance to God on the part of
teachers or students, in the very next minute, they are expected to utter a
secular prayer, (the Pledge of Allegiance) even invoking the name of God in
the process.

Is our government so constituted that we should swear allegiance to it?  If
we call ourselves Christians, how can we allow our children to express such
blind, unquestioning fidelity to an entity that today, expressly rejects the
notion that God's laws are sovereign and above all human laws?  The founding
fathers of both the United States and Confederate States, repeatedly
acknowledged the supremacy of Biblical law, which was accepted as the basis
of all civil law, governance, and morality.  Christians can only hold
allegiance for civil government when it in turn embraces the authority of
the Lord Jesus Christ.  The plain truth that has been staring us in the face
for some time now, is that our government sanctions infanticide through
abortion, embraces immorality in the name of liberty and justice, and
utterly repudiates many of the most precious principles which were
established at our founding, such as, limited government, state sovereignty
and "reserved powers", conditional suffrage, and the sanctity of the home,
the family, and private property, to name but a few.

A pledge of allegiance to the flag of our government is not a real measure
of our patriotism.  Our patriotism is measured in our adherence to the
principles of government expressed in the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights, and in our determination to oppose those that would undermine,
contort, or destroy their clear meaning and protections.  Today, we are
repeatedly told by government, and their minions in the media, that we are
not now, nor have we ever been, a Christian nation.  They boast that our
government makes no distinction between Christianity or any other religious
faith, or lack of faith.  Even a cursory study of this nation's founding
will put to rest the lie that we were never a Christian nation, or intended
to remain so.  If you think otherwise, I would urge you to investigate this
for yourself.  While Christianity was never "established" by the
Constitution as the State religion, it was openly recognized as the basis of
our law and culture.  Perhaps this is why immigration was originally
restricted primarily to those Christian societies comprising Western
Civilization, where assimilation into our Christian culture posed no threat
to its survival and preeminence.  Maybe we should be asking ourselves if the
secular attacks on Christianity today are somehow tied to newer laws that
now almost exclusively allow for non-Western immigration into the U.S.
Could the massive push in government, schools, and the media, promoting
multiculturalism and diversity, all be part of a plan to reconstruct a
society antithetical to that which the founding fathers envisioned?  Of
course it is.  The only question remaining for us is, will we stand idle
while our Christian culture and the founding principles of our government
are undermined, repudiated, and destroyed?  I will stand with the founding
fathers, as well as those much- maligned latter-day patriots in the
Confederate States that embraced their Christian heritage, and were vigilant
in defending the Constitution and Bill of Rights from the 19th century
usurpers that pale in comparison with those of the 20th century.  When it
comes to Christianity and the principles that gave birth to our freedom and
independence, I urge you to remain ever UNRECONSTRUCTED.  Our allegiance is
owed to Jesus Christ, not to a government that rejects him.  Our children
should not be subject to coercive indoctrination, especially without regard
to a thorough understanding of what it is they are pledging allegiance to.
We have to wonder why there is no corresponding pledge of fidelity to the
Constitution and Bill of Rights.

In the entire world, only the U.S. and the Philippines have a pledge to
their flag.  This naturally leads some of us to wonder why the rest of the
world's Republics and Democracies have chosen not to adopt this practice.
Do they see the mindless idolatry that most of us have missed?   Perhaps it
would be profitable to point out some little known facts regarding the
origin of the Pledge.  It was first written in 1892 by a Boston Socialist by
the name of Francis Bellamy.  As a Socialist he joined a movement begun by
his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, in which they advocated for the
"nationalization" of the American economy by the federal government, and
lamented the "evils of capitalism".  The Bellamy's were successful in
gaining the support of The National Education Association in promoting the
pledge for all public school children as a patriotic gesture coinciding with
the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America.
The federal government eventually passed legislation sanctioning the use of
the pledge and issuing instructions on how it was to be done.  The reader
might find it interesting to note that the recital was initially given with
the arm fully extended in what we recognize today as "the Nazi salute".  It
was changed to the hand over the heart during World War II for obvious
reasons.  Southerners may be interested to know that Bellamy included the
word "indivisible" by claiming that the Union fought the "Civil War" (sic)
to prove this.  Placing our religious objections aside for a moment, on this
basis alone we should oppose a pledge so uttered.  It is an absolute denial
of the same right that gave birth to the Republic in the first place.  Do we
not embrace the principle of "consent of the governed" any longer?  Is this
right not clearly defined in The Declaration of Independence?

In conclusion, are there no circumstances under which allegiance to our
government can be questioned?  If not, then we are but slaves.  I believe
that Americans today are victims of government propaganda and a false and
pernicious dogma that amounts to the worship of the all- powerful state.
This is what passes for patriotism for today.  This kind of patriotism must
be challenged if we are going to retain any semblance of the liberty we were
intended to have.  What do you think?  I welcome comments at
wcarlson@i-plus.net