What would Jesus drink?
My mom sent me this today:
DON'T BUY PEPSI IN THE NEW CAN!
Don't buy Pepsi in the new can. Pepsi has a new "patriotic" can
coming out with pictures of the Empire State Building, and the Pledge of
Allegiance on them. However, Pepsi left out two little words on the
pledge, "Under God." Pepsi said they didn't want to offend anyone. In
that case, we don't want to offend anyone at the Pepsi corporate office,
either.. So if we don't buy any Pepsi product, they will not be offended
when they don't receive our money that has the words "In God We Trust"
on it. HOW FAST CAN YOU FORWARD THIS ONE?
Yes indeed, how fast can you forward this one…
I don't drink Pepsi, or any soft drink, so this is a moot point for me (okay I drink Diet Coke with my Vodka). Nor do I even care if Pepsi does have a new patriotic can with the Pledge on it. (By the way they don't) But this made think about the whole pledge controversy again, so I thought I'd blog about it, as I don't like to rant about this type of thing to my mother. If you knew my mother you'd understand.
First off, a little background, I believe in separation of Church and State, I am a Christian and I believe in God, but the idea of the government being able to mandate what I believe or maybe even persecuting me for having unorthodox beliefs is very scary. Secondly, the Pledge was written in 1892 without the phrase "under God." Thirdly, the controversial phrase wasn't added until 1954, as I understand it, to separate us from Godless communism. What's funny about that is the damn thing was written by a socialist. Ironic, don't ya' think?
Intrinsically this is a tough stance for me to take, but I think "under God" should be removed from the pledge. Taken at face value it represents the Federal Government as advocating the Christian religion and that DNA don't splice under my concept of separation of Church and State. Now, perhaps we can look at the phrase in an abstract way, so that God becomes god and simply represents that the US, lets say, doesn't hold itself above all else. We as a nation humble ourselves before a bigger presence and that presence could be whatever tickles your fancy or melts your butter. My problem with this is that it so dilutes the idea that it becomes completely pointless, so why have it at all.
One last thought. Irregardless of what political or religious connotations people want to put on the pledge, shouldn't we respect the original writers work? The pledge has been altered several times, at least twice. Is it right to take someone's written word, someone's work and change it around like that? I know I wouldn't like it if someone did that to me. I think we should get the moxy to change it back to its original incarnation and be done with it.