21st Annual Bill of Rights
Art and Essay Contest, 2004-2005

TOPIC:  Does reciting "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance at school violate the Constitution?

1st Prize, Middle School

by an 8th-grade Pacific Grove Middle School student

I believe that having the words "under God" in the pledge is unconstitutional. I think having these words in the pledge is going against the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, a part of which states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;..." Humans are all different and stating that we are a nation under god is false. We are a nation under many things.

Many parents do not wish for their child to recite a pledge of allegiance that includes a reference to god. An example of this, though not the first case on this subject was the case of Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow on June 14, 2004. In this case the father of a young girl said he did not want her pledging allegiance to a god at school. He was an atheist and was trying to teach her different beliefs. Instead of resolving this case the Supreme Court declared that he did not have the right to bring this case on behalf of his daughter because he did not officially have custody over her.

Although you could argue from the court case in 1943, West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnett, in which it was decided that students who do not wish to partake in the pledge may refrain from reciting it, that any parent who complained could just tell his or her child not to say the pledge, the problem is that this will not make much of a difference. At the elementary school age or any school age for that matter, there are not going to be many children who are willing to be different. Most of them no matter what their families believes will say the pledge because they do not wish to be bothered because they are different.

References to God are found in many places. If you go look at a coin, you will find our motto "in God we trust". Somehow this seems different to me than having the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance. When we are reciting the pledge of allegiance we are unifying our country, we are showing our loyalty and allegiance toward our country. The money we spend is not something that we use to show our loyalty or patriotism. I think having the words "under God" in the pledge is establishing that everyone who is allegiant to our country is allegiant to God as well, which is untrue.

As we already know not everybody in this country considers himself "under god". There is no doubt that God has a large presence in this country but it is not that way for everyone. I think people should combine God and our country together at another time. I do not think it is fair to combine them together in a daily practice that is trying to promote unity in the country. There are a lot of people who believe in some other God or do not believe in one at all. The people who want to worship them together should do so a different time.

We cannot say that we are a nation under God. If you want to put it that way, you have to consider other people. Although this nation was started mainly under God it had broadened a great deal since then. We are now a nation under Allah, a nation under Buddha, a nation under no god, plus many others. What if people started saying that we are a nation under no god? Wouldn't this be the same thing? They both state that we are under a specific faith or lack of one in this case, and they both establish an idea of religion that a nation could be faithful to. And yet one would be socially unacceptable or at least more so than the words "under God" already are.

What I am trying to prove is that the words "under God" upset people. We are a mix of faiths and we should not make a point of one in particular. These words were put in the pledge in the first place to differentiate us from communists. This means that they were meant to establish that we had a secure religion in our country. Congress is not allowed to establish religion whatsoever. Therefore I believe that the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance are unconstitutional.