AU Students

A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that use of the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance does not violate the separation of church and state.

The 2-1 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest decision in a long-running legal campaign by Michael Newdow, a California atheist activist, to have “under God” declared unconstitutional.

Today an imam delivered the opening prayer before the Virginia House of Delegates – and once again the Religious Right is having kittens.

The issue of prayer before government meetings continues to generate controversy around the country. Yesterday I mentioned a flap in Sevier County, Tenn., where members of the Board of Commissioners routinely open their meetings with the Lord’s Prayer.

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday did us all a favor by declining to hear a case from Haskell County, Okla., concerning the display of the Ten Commandments on public property.

Let’s close out the week with a selection of updates and news tidbits that you might have missed:

It may strike you as out-of-season that media outlets have been reporting on the Salvation Army this week. After all, the month of February is drawing to a close, D.C.’s 40-plus inches of snow is beginning to melt and winter is waning.

We should have at least 10 months to hold onto our pocket change before next
December rolls around and the volunteers of the Salvation Army are back in the limelight — wearing their red velour Santa hats, ringing those infamous gold
bells and erecting kettles in front of shopping malls to collect seasonal donations.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about R. Rex Parris, the mayor of Lancaster, Calif. Parris found himself in a bit of a hot spot when, during a speech to religious leaders, he asserted, “We’re growing a Christian community, and don’t let anybody shy away from that.”

You can’t make this stuff up.

The Virginia House of Delegates has just passed a bill that supporters hope will keep the Antichrist at bay.

You hear a loud whirring noise, you say? That would be Thomas Jefferson and James Madison spinning like tops in their Virginia graves.

Yes, it’s true. Yesterday House members approved a measure that would prohibit employers and insurance companies from requiring people to implant microchips in their bodies.

The Washington Post yesterday added to its long list of editorials and columns in support of Washington, D.C.’s controversial school voucher plan.

The newspaper seems to have an obsession with keeping the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program alive, despite knowing that the program has shown no improvement in student performance, lacks accountability, hurts public schools and subsidizes religious education with taxpayer funds.

The one-year anniversary today of the unveiling of President Barack Obama’s version of the “faith-based” initiative has pushed the issue back into the spotlight. Unfortunately, the news is not good.

Speaking at yesterday’s National Prayer Breakfast, Obama boasted that he had “turned the faith-based initiative around.”

I was surprised to read that statement, because everything I see indicates that we’re still fighting the same old battles over faith-based funding that erupted during the Bush years.