Pledged to Keep God in America’s Fiber

By Mary Vetek Inabnit
Gulf Breeze, Florida

At the forefront of the battle to keep God in the Pledge of Allegiance, Renee Bookout maintains that the moral fiber of America is woven in principles that include religious beliefs in upbringing.

A parishioner of St. Ann Parish, Gulf Breeze, Bookout is the general counsel and senior vice president of the Center for Individual Freedom, a group located in Alexandria, VA, fighting to preserve God’s name in the patriotic pledge of the United States. She applies historical documents to validate a contention that the Founders of this country believed in religious freedom.

When the Center for Individual Freedom takes on a case it is heart-felt. The organization has fought for causes including the constitutionality of a school voucher program in Cleveland, Ohio in 2002. The objection was that massive amounts of money went to religious schools. The Center reasoned in its friend of the court brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court that as in so many areas of constitutional law, ranging from free speech to equal protection, the fundamental requirement is an equality of opportunity, not a preordained outcome.

Last year the Center joined the ominous task of preserving God in the Pledge of Allegiance, with Bookout overseeing the Center’s project.

Bookout, known in legal documents by her maiden name, Giachino, became involved with the Center for Individual Freedom in 1998 when it was formed. Five years ago Bookout moved to the Gulf Coast with her husband Chris, an orthopedic surgeon, and their three young children. She continues to work for the organization through telecommunications, and travels to Washington D.C. for hearings and meetings.

When she is isn’t traveling, Bookout finds time to volunteer at her children’s school and teaches religious education classes on Sundays at St. Ann’s. She is also working with St. Ann’s youth group to create an awareness of the importance of keeping the words "one Nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. The youth are having magnets created with the American Flag bearing the words "one Nation under God" to display on car bumpers and other locations of high visibility to create public awareness. The magnets are planned to go on sale Feb. 21, at the parish and proceeds will fund other youth projects.

Driven by a strong interest in the future of the nation’s children, Bookout is concerned about trends that move away from the moral values instilled by the Founding Fathers of the United States.

"We have reached a sad day in America when we allow our laws to take over common sense and zealots to have a greater voice than the rest of the nation. We can’t allow zealots to tear at the fabric of the American flag. We can’t allow them to be over zealous or allow liberal judges to disregard the teachings of our Founding Fathers and legislate from the bench," Bookout asserted.

The mission of the Center for Individual Freedom involves issues that run the gamut of scrutinizing amendments to defending the Constitution of the United States. The organization defines itself as a constitutional advocacy group, non-partisan and secular.

Though private contributions often fund the group, the Center feels so strongly about keeping God in the Pledge of Allegiance that they are funding this particular brief themselves. Bookout said there are 27 similar independent amicus briefs fighting the same cause filed with the Supreme Courts, including one by the Knights of Columbus.

The case against the Pledge of Allegiance was brought by Michael Newdow, an atheist, who opposed his daughter having to hear the Pledge recited in her elementary school class in Sacramento, CA. Newdow, an emergency room doctor with a law degree, acted as his own lawyer in the case before the Federal District Court, which was thrown out, and in his appeal before the 9th Circuit Court. He will argue his own case again before the U.S. Supreme Court.

On a decisive day in California, June 26, 2002, a three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted two to one, holding that the Pledge of Allegiance, when it includes the words one Nation under God, specifically the word God, impermissibly coerced a religious act by students when they stood up to recite it.

Shocked that any Court could reach such a conclusion, the Center for Individual Freedom joined in the fight on appeal.

"We immediately began writing about it on our website to educate and mobilize the public. We then filed a friend of the court brief ‘amicus curiae,’" said Bookout, "to argue that voluntary recitation does not constitute a religious exercise forbidden by the Establishment Clause.

"The true understanding of the Establishment Clause was not meant to erect a wall. It was established to preclude the government from forcing a certain religion on anyone; not from disallowing the practice of religion. We look back to what was the intent of the Founding Fathers in the Constitution. For centuries the government has had a religious acknowledgement," said Bookout.

She cited numerous examples. James Madison who wrote much of The Bill of Rights stated that, "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

George Washington in his farewell address stated, "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles."

Another obvious inclusion of God in traditional verbiage is the national motto, "In God We Trust," which appears on coinage and paper currency. The Courts also require those testifying to swear on the Bible.

Bookout further affirmed, "When you study the verbiage of the Pledge of Allegiance, it describes what the Republic is; pledging to a symbol, the flag. The rest describes the Republic; a nation that has always had within its beliefs, the belief in God. We do not say, ‘I pledge allegiance to God.’ We are pledging to a symbol, the flag, and the rest is describing what brought us to that symbol. That’s one of the points that we are trying to make in our brief. We have for many years shared this religious heritage and culture. It is not being forced upon anyone in the voluntary recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. It simply describes what our country is built on: one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We are built on the principles: indivisible, one nation and it has always been one Nation under God."

One of the main arguments used by opponents of the words "under God," is they were added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, by then President Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a statement of separation between communism and democracy. Opponents contend that it should be removed because it was not in the original Pledge, but was an addition.

"In 1954 people began to reflect upon the horrors the world had experienced over the previous 10-15 years. People stepped back to look at the principles the United States was founded on. Doctrinally, looking back in the writings of the Founding Fathers, it was never intended that beliefs be disregarded," said Bookout.

She explained that throughout the earliest days of the nation’s history the Courts upheld the use of the word God as an essential thread that binds together the nation’s fabric. In 1892, the U.S. Supreme Court held "The happiness of a people and the good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend upon piety, religion, and morality."

The Court also wrote "It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs whether any free government can be permanent where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitutes no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape."

On March 24, the Supreme Court will hear the oral arguments in the Pledge of Allegiance case. With Justice Scalia rescuing himself from deciding the case because of comments he made earlier last year at a Religious Day event, there is potential for the Court to be divided 4-4 on the case. If that happens, then the 9th Circuit’s opinion remains good law and the words "under God" would be banned from the Pledge in the nine western states covered by the 9th Circuit. If upheld by a majority of the Supreme Court, its ban would apply nationwide.

Thus far in other rulings the High Court has barred school officials from organizing and sponsoring religious invocations at graduations or conducting officially organized prayers before sporting events. The Court has also forbidden the posting of the Ten Commandments in public places outside the context of an historical exhibit displaying other antiquities or historical documents.

The battle to keep God in the Pledge is not limited to the courts. Both sides of the U.S. Congress are considering multiple bills to protect the Pledge and safeguard religious liberties.

Bookout said that as a mother and Catholic she takes pride when she observes school children putting their hands over their hearts to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. "Whenever I think about the soldiers that are fighting for us now and the people that have risked and lost their lives for us as a nation, I think it is remarkable that we have all shared in the language of the Pledge of Allegiance together. As a Catholic I would be extremely saddened to not hear the word God spoken in the Pledge and I don’t think that I could ever say the Pledge of Allegiance without speaking the words, one Nation under God."

The website for the Center for Individual Freedom is www.cfif.org

• This story originally appeared in the February 19, 2004, edition of The Florida Catholic.
  
  
• To read the Center’s amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, click here.

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