One Nation, Under God

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With sounds of youthful laughter, conversations about the students’ weekends, and the shuffling of college ruled paper; students file into their classrooms and find their seats on a typical Monday morning. As the announcements travel throughout the school’s intercoms, the usual “Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance” becomes no longer usual but rather puzzling to some students. “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all.” Confusion passes through some of the student’s minds. With the reoccurrence of “God” in the backdrop of American life, the relationship between church and state has become of little to no matter for American citizens just as it has with American students. While congress makes no law respecting an establishment of religion, the term “freedom of religion” presents itself to no longer be the definition of “free”, while also having its effects on debates today. According to Burt Rieff, in Conflicting Rights and Religious Liberty, “Parents, school officials, politicians, and religious leaders entered the battle over defining the relationship between church and state, transforming constitutional issues into political, religious, and cultural debates” (Rieff). Throughout the 20th century, many have forgotten the meaning of religion and what its effects are on the people of today. With the nonconformist society in today’s culture, religion has placed itself in a category of insignificance. With the many controversies of the world, religion is at a stand still, and is proven to not be as important as it was in the past. Though the United States government is based on separation of church and state, the gover... ... middle of paper ... ...ays Proposals May Challenge Religious Freedom." Irish Times. 29 Aug. 2011: 4. eLibrary. Web. 31 Aug. 2011. Gedicks, Frederick Mark. "Religious Exemptions, Formal Neutrality, and Laïcité." Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. 01 Jul. 2006: 473. eLibrary. Web. 31 Aug. 2011. “Religious Freedom.” Office of International Religious Freedom Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. State Department Documents / FIND, , 17 Aug. 2011. eLibrary. Web. 31 Aug. 2011. Rieff, Burt. "Conflicting Rights and Religious Liberty: The School-Prayer Controversy in Alabama, 1962-1985." Alabama Review 3(2001):163. eLibrary. Web. 31 Aug. 2011. Samples, John. "Religion and Civil Rights." World & I. 01 Jan. 2004: 32. eLibrary. Web. 24 Aug. 2011. Wood, James E, Jr. "Religious Human Rights and a Democratic State." Journal of Church and State 4(2004):739. eLibrary. Web. 31 Aug. 2011.

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