Liberty Minute November 12 2013                                  

A teacher in Spring Hill, Florida, was recently suspended for trying to force a fourth-grader to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance against his religious convictions. This is a case where the teacher needed to learn from the student.

The term ?Liege? is a noun describing a lord or ruler. When one professes allegiance, that individual is submitting to a Liege.

In America, Thomas Paine famously said, the law is king. Many who fought in the War for Independence embraced the slogan, ?No king but King Jesus.? In a constitutional republic founded on ?the laws of nature and Nature?s God,? citizens are not subjects. This is one reason why many genuinely patriotic Americans object to the Pledge of Allegiance ? the original version of which was written by a socialist-leaning nationalist who wanted to institutionalize loyalty to the central government in Washington.

Many atheists object to the inclusion of the phrase ?under God? in the Pledge, which in the absence of that phrase would make the government the central focus of the citizen?s devotion.  But honorable people of many backgrounds take issue with the way in which the Pledge seems to make the citizens subordinate to a government that is supposed to be their servant, rather than their master.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.