Texas students will have four more words to remember when they head back to class this month and begin reciting the state’s pledge of allegiance.
This year’s Legislature added the phrase “one state under God” to the pledge, which is part of a required morning ritual in Texas public schools along with the pledge to the U.S. flag and a moment of silence.
State Rep. Debbie Riddle, who sponsored the bill, said it had always bothered her that God was omitted in the state’s pledge.
“Personally, I felt like the Texas pledge had a big old hole in it, and it occurred to me, ‘You know what? We need to fix that,’ ” said Riddle, R-Tomball. “Our Texas pledge is perfectly OK like it is with the exception of acknowledging that just as we are one nation under God, we are one state under God as well.”
“Our Texas pledge is perfectly OK like it is with the exception of acknowledging that just as we are one nation under God, we are one state under God as well.”
A lie. Unless you believe that all gods are God, we are not all under one God. Why don’t people stick to evangelizing instead of legislating their religion?!
Ah yes, the civil religion is alive and well in the Lone Star State. Those of us familiar with Texas state politics will no doubt roll our eyes as the state GOP continues to flounder around without any semblance of an agenda for state government. Although most politicos estimate that immigration trends will relieve them of that responsibility for good in roughly a decade.
The pledge is not required, either, as described in the article. Any student may refuse to participate in the ritual. That has been so since 1941, when the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses who refused to pledge allegiance to our flag.
I love my country, but I encourage my students to think clearly and to avoid pledging allegiance to symbols, abstractions like Texas, and pieces of cloth, even if they have blood stains and bullet holes.
I moved to Texas many years ago when I was 13. I found it quite odd that in addition to the US Pledge of Allegiance students recited a Texas version. But then of course, I was born and raised in Washington (state) where to my knowledge there is no state pledge of allegiance.
One might easily forget that the United States went for 116 years with no pledge of allegiance.
‘one state under God’ – that would be the Texas Republic, I guess?
Or is this pledge aimed at stifling dissent in secessionist counties? ‘Dismember the Alamo!’
Do these people know how illiterate and ignorant of history they sound?
I’d forgotten there was a Texas pledge and couldn’t say it if my life depended on it. And I’m a Texas boy born and (Mrs. Baird’s) bred. I don’t think we said it in most of my school days (6os) and certainly never as an adult.
Here is Red Skelton on the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance, including “One Nation Under God.”
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/redskeltonpledgeofallegiance.htm, particularly this line:
“Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country, and two words have been added to the Pledge of Allegiance: Under God. Wouldn’t it be a pity if someone said, ‘That is a prayer’ — and that be eliminated from our schools, too?”
I graduated from high school in Texas and didn’t even know we had a state pledge! I took state government in a Texas university and it wasn’t mentioned then.
While I am politically conservative, I think this is nothing but grandstanding on the part of some one in the legislature.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
Grandstanding? Our beloved legislature?! Sure, Phil, you jest.