Don't Say The Pledge. Here's why ...

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• published: 04 Oct 2014
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Don't Say The Pledge. Here's why ... Hemant Mehta (http://www.friendlyatheist.com, http://www.patreon.com/Hemant , https://www.facebook.com/friendlyatheist) If you're in school, do you stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? The American Humanist Association recently launched a campaign at dontsaythepledge.com telling students to stand up by sitting down during the Pledge. It's a tough thing to do, because you're just drawing attention to yourself. But let me explain why it makes sense to do it: First, The words "Under God" weren't in the original Pledge, which was written by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister. (If you really want to be amused, go look up the Bellamy Salute) The words "Under God" were added in 1954 when we were still fighting those "Godless Communists" and wanted to differentiate ourselves from them. The words are a relic of the Cold War. They need to go. But legal challenges haven't worked yet. So for now, we're stuck with it. What's more, the Pledge used to say we were "one nation, indivisible." But then "under God" was stuck right in between there, dividing us. By the way, it turns out when you tell people that information I just said, more than a third of Americans support removing those words from the Pledge. (Link: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/09/02/survey-shows-that-more-than-a-third-of-americans-support-a-pledge-of-allegiance-without-under-god/) It's also not really about patriotism. I love this country. But I don't always like what it does and this idea of unquestionable allegiance to it is scary. If I told you that a nation like Saudi Arabia or North Korea had a mandatory pledge of allegiance to the country that kids had to say in school every day, you'd call that brainwashing. And why are we pledging to a flag? To a symbol? I know it's convenient in a classroom, but this is part of the reason so many people have trouble understanding the First Amendment. Ask people if it's okay to burn a flag. A lot of them will be like, "whoa, you can't do that!" Why not? It's a piece of cloth. Any meaning it has is all in our minds. Catholics do this sort of thing with Communion wafers all the time, freaking out if consecrated wafers get in the wrong hands. It's a wafer. No one's eating your God. So forget the Pledge. Hell, our elected officials should pledge allegiance to us instead. If you stay seated, and you get in any trouble for it, please let the American Humanist Association know. The site again is DontSayThePledge.com You Might Also Like ... 7 Things That Prove God is Real https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ50omyWziE&list;=PLZGLqPtxUOKEZxzukuev1YpLUQp-CtKDq&index;=128 78 Questions for Christians https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI-_FJuTPns&index;=138&list;=PLZGLqPtxUOKEZxzukuev1YpLUQp-CtKDq 4 Creative Ways to Deal with Preachers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3kHcV36dak&index;=133&list;=PLZGLqPtxUOKEZxzukuev1YpLUQp-CtKDq Join the conversation. Leave your questions and comments below and we'll try to address them in future videos. Don't forget to subscribe for more! Also, follow us at ... https://twitter.com/atheistvoices https://www.facebook.com/TheAtheistVoices https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/106662137332631352312/106662137332631352312/posts/p/pub http://theatheistvoice.tumblr.com/ http://www.theatheistvoice.com/ The Atheist Voice provides a platform for discussion for atheist leaders, authors, bloggers, activists, and everybody else who is passionate about atheism, and secularism. Join the discussion by commenting under the videos or submitting video responses. If you'd like to collaborate on this channel or if you'd like to appear in our videos please visit our website www.TheAtheistVoice.com