around the name of the Deity, but because the people in this story are opposed to even using the word "God," let alone accepting the idea.
The Associated Press is reporting that the California attorney who fought to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance will join a lawsuit seeking the removal of all references to God and religion at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. Michael Newdow, who believes all references to God or religion are unconstitutional, wants to remove the phrase "so help me God" from the oath of office and block the invocation by Pastor Rick Warren.The lawsuit has about as much chance as winning as that crazy stuff about Obama's birth certificate, but it still makes us mad. Newdow, along with anti-religion activists like Christopher Hitchens and Bill Marr, are guilty of unwittingly subverting the very Constitution they purport to cherish. They confuse the establishment of a state religion with any expression of public faith, leading them attack the very values the claim to hold dear.
Newdow, of course, invokes the First Amendment's "establishment clause," which says Congress "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." He ignores the less-known second half of the sentence, "...or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. "
Of course the Federal Government can't name an official state religion, but the idea that uttering the words "so help me God" at an inauguration ceremony amounts to establishing an Official Church of the United States is laughably absurd.
More significantly, the "free exercise" clause clearly states that the government must not prevent people from practicing whatever faith they choose. Attempting to cleanse all religious language from any public arena does just that. Nobody, after all, is forcing President-elect Obama to take the oath of office with a hand on the bible. No one is forcing him to have a pastor speak. Those are Obama's decisions. If he also wanted a Rabbi, Buddhist Monk and a noted atheist to give speeches, he has that right as well.
Newdom and his supporters, perversely, want to take that right away. The lawsuit would force the government to keep Obama, and the rest of us, from the free exercise of our faith. Now, you tell us, who here seems to be for freedom?
