Let Freedom Sing

I'm not exactly Kid Rock's biggest fan. As a matter of fact, the first Kid Rock song that I ever heard in its entirety was a version of "Lonely Road of Faith" that he performed on CMT Crossroads. I remember hearing the song for the first time and thinking to myself, "This guy has an amazing voice. Who in the world is this guy?" When I learned that it was Kid Rock I was almost embarrassed. How could I have possibly found the music of someone as disgusting as Kid Rock so outstanding? I was conflicted.

The theme for the inauguration is "Celebrating Freedom, Honoring Service." What better way to celebrate the freedom that we all share as Americans than by bringing together people from different backgrounds and lifestyles to share the things we have in common? Far too much of the world is devoted to the things that divide us. The Founding Fathers didn't see eye to eye all the time but they were able to come together on the things they had in common. Rather than condemning Kid Rock for our differences lets celebrate the fact that we both desire a country where we're free to make our own choices for the things that affect us. I can choose to worship God and pray openly (except in school) and he can choose to sing songs about violence and drug culture.

Perhaps if we chose to celebrate the things we have in common more often then we would be able to establish a rapport with people that would serve as a vehicle for open and honest dialogue about the issues on which we disagree. That's a far cry from the environment we see today where Democrats will vote for anyone but Bush and Bush supporters are writing books entitled "How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)." My take? Establish some guidelines for the event that govern the conduct. Minimum standards could be set in regards to appearance, language, etc. If Kid Rock were willing to agree: let freedom sing!

"It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag." - Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, Sergeant, USMC

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faith have been afforded asylum, prosperity and freedom of worship here." - Patrick Henry

This week the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled the following:

"In the context of the Pledge, the statement that the United States is a nation “under God” is an endorsement of religion. It is a profession of a religious belief, namely, a belief in monotheism. The Court is saying that to recite the Pledge is not merely to describe the United States as a nation founded by people with deeply held religious beliefs; instead, it is to actually swear allegiance to the values for which the flag stands: unity, indivisibility, liberty, justice, and - since 1954 - the reality of monotheism."

While the Pledge of Allegiance may endorse monotheism, I don't believe that requiring someone to recite the pledge constitutes "respecting an establishment of religion," which is what the First Amendment prohibits. The First Amendment was intended to keep the government from respecting Pilgrims over Quakers and Catholics over Protestants, not to force our society to change for the few godless among us. The fact of the matter is, there must be things that the entire nation is willing to presuppose in order for the nation to exist and function as a nation. The Court refers to these as "the values for which the flag stands." Just as the Court has acknowledged that liberty and justice are values for which the flag stands, our founding fathers would argue that a belief in God is just as central an idea. There are mounds of evidence to support this claim, from the Declaration of Independence (men are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights"), to numerous examples in the Federalist Papers, to the Constitution itself ("in the year of our Lord"). Now while we may not be requiring school children to swear allegiance to these documents, certainly these are just as much examples of the government "respecting an establishment of religion." There is no distinction in the Constitution between one form of "respecting an establishment of religion" and another; the Constitution and our founding fathers meant to disallow them all. The fact that God is mentioned in such documents, including the Constitution, is only proof that the founding fathers did not view endorsing monotheism as "respecting an establishment of religion," they viewed it as a prerequisite for this nation to exist, just like liberty and justice.

Jefferson once pondered "can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?" That's exactly what this ruling does; it ignores that our prosperity as a nation is due only to the blessings of the Almighty God. Jefferson continues that the liberties of a nation "are not to be violated but with His wrath." I fear that the same fate awaits those who refuse to acknowledge that God is the reason for our prosperity. I can only therefore pray that soon the Supreme Court will overturn this ruling and save us all from His wrath.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage." - Alexander Tyler, 1778, writing about the fall of the Athenian Republic