The gesture has gone little noticed and for good reason. It was meaningless. The U.S. House came out in favor of God the other day, by 401-5. Presumably he is tickled. Or she is.
Nothing was more certain in this election year than that, once a federal appellate court had judged the “under God” part of the Pledge of Allegiance in violation of the Constitution’s separation of church and state, politicians would hustle to line up with the deity.
The only wonder is that it took so long. The 9th Circuit court ruled in June. Congress, on a gimme like this, usually goes from zero to 60 mph in about two seconds.
Few lures, short of cash contributions, are more appealing to your average working politician than a crack at a little innocence by association. And never mind that the associate stands mute on the issue.
The resolution passed by the House is pointless. For one thing, it is non-binding. For another, most legal experts expect the Supreme Court to overturn the appellate ruling anyway on the grounds that any harm from the godly pledge is minimal, slipping in under constitutional radar.
The Senate already has passed a similar resolution, including, while it was at it, support for the motto “In God We Trust.” The House’s new wrinkle is an instruction that hats are to be removed for the pledge and held on the left shoulder by the right hand placed over the heart. The Senate no doubt will concur and maybe even raise the ante with further instructions for pantomiming piety.
Just a wild guess, but here’s betting President George W. Bush will sign the resolution.
Poor God has been a political football in this matter from the start. The pledge had been an unexceptional bit of civic liturgy for years when Congress in 1954 hammered God into it.
The Cold War was at its worst about then, professional hysterics were seeing Commies under every bed and the idea was to dramatize the difference between God-fearing America — God-loving never entered into it — and the godless Soviet Union.
The point hardly needed to be driven home. Ideologically atheist, the Soviets themselves were proclaiming their godlessness with evangelical zeal.
This is one of those church-state matters that even many strict separationists don’t give much of a hoot about. The issue wasn’t pressed by the usual civil-liberty suspects but by a lone father with a beef about his second-grade daughter being subjected to what he figured was low-grade proselytizing.
He has a point, but the point is in the “Yeah, but…” range.
Nine members of the House upheld the democratic end of things, making sure not even God could get a unanimous vote.
In addition to the five who voted no, four voted present. All had one overarching, unifying intellectual principle in common. Safe districts.