The Pope and the Pledge (cont'd)

Michael has asked whether the Pope's call to include an acknowledgment of Europe's Christian heritage in the EU Constitution is similar to the inclusion of religious references in our public documents, including the pledge of allegiance. At least as far as the inclusion of "under God" in our pledge, I believe the Pope's call is a fundamentally different and more defensible example of religion's entry into the public square. The course and tenor of the EU Constitution and pledge controversies speak volumes about the wildly divergent conceptions of church and state in Europe and America.

I have yet to read a coherent -- much less compelling -- argument as to why the EU Constitution must be devoid of any reference to Christianity's formative role in the very existence of Europe. It seems that European secularism is rapidly morphing into a worldview that not only privatizes religion, but attempts to pretend that it doesn't exist at all. (See February posts discussing French ban on religious garb in schools.)

The pledge is a different story. Read in plain context, "under God" is not a reference to the founders' beliefs, but an ongoing normative assertion. As such, the secularist objection must be taken seriously. Indeed, as I've posted on earlier (see "Discomfort with the Pledge," Mar. 25), to overcome the secularist objection and remain within the framework of Establishment Clause jurisprudence, one must almost unavoidably give offense to those of us who take religious utterances seriously.

Rob