Nice to see the Fargo, North Dakota school board did the right thing and stopped saying the Pledge of Allegiance at its meetings after a school board member made some great arguments about why this didn't fit with their policy of inclusion.
After all, "under God" does indeed refer to the Judeo-Christian god. If the pledge said "under gods, or no god," that would be an accurate reflection of the wide variety of religious beliefs in the United States, which includes atheists and agnostics who don't believe in any god.
To see a brief video of the persuasive argument used by the school board member, check out Fargo School Board nixes Pledge of Allegiance due to 'under God' phrase.
* loud applause *
Just watched the relevant bit, from 56 mins in through the end.
I applaud his well articulated argument, firm yet entirely respectful of the religious POV.
But more so I applaud the utterly ...civilized, and rational, ethos, that makes this sort of thing so effortlessly possible. If only this kind of ethos were more widespread, if only this sort of thing were the norm everywhere, if only rationality and reason and sense were as commonplace and ubiquitous a thing as, in this day and age, it should be. If only.
Posted by: Appreciative Reader | August 26, 2022 at 10:32 AM