Date: April 29, 2004
From: Jerry Falwell

ONE NATION ... INCREASINGLY DIVISIBLE

I imagine that Rep. James McDermott has heard from many of his trendy
liberal friends who have been telling him what a brave and courageous soul
he is for snubbing the phrase "under God" when he led the House of
Representatives in saying the Pledge of Allegiance on Tuesday.

Rep. McDermott, a man who does pledge allegiance to Planned Parenthood, the
Feminist Majority and the other dictatorial abortion-rights groups in our
nation, contended that he refused to utter the words "under God" because the
courts are presently considering whether the phrase is constitutional.  He
was referring to, of course, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling
that found the two words to be unconstitutional.  A decision on that ruling
is pending at the U.S. Supreme Court.

This is just one more case of an abject secularist ignoring the God-centered
groundwork that is responsible for the establishment and achievement of this
nation.  Today's secularists loathe America's biblical underpinning that
served to inspire and motivate our Founders to forge a nation that would
recognize the value of its religious citizens, even in governmental affairs.
They disrespect our history and seek only to establish an agenda that
eradicates our longstanding religious heritage.

Secularists want the American public square to be devoid of religious
influence, especially if it has a Christian foundation.  From Ten
Commandments monuments at American courthouses, to high school football game
prayers, to the brief mention of God in our Pledge, secularists are seeking
to enforce their marginal views on the nation, thereby creating an America
that our Founders would not recognize.

Barry Lynn, president of Americans United for the Separation of Church and
State, a group that seeks to wholly secularize our nation, admitted to me
that he ultimately hopes to purge the words "In God We Trust" from our
currency.

I wonder if secularists would, given the ability to do so, strike the phrase
"endowed by our Creator" from the U.S. Constitution.  They have asserted
that the great document is a living, breathing manuscript, which suggests
that they believe they ultimately have the leeway to extract words or
phrases that offend and insult their present-day secularist notions.

Will they take control of our nation's textbooks so that they can cleanse
words that chronicle our Founders as men of faith who routinely sought
guidance from above?  Will secularists obscure from future generations the
fact that our Founders called the nation to earnest prayer and supplication,
entreating Almighty God to bless them?  Will ministers one day be punished
for upholding the Word of God in sermons that counter the secularist
standpoint?

Columnist Ann Coulter, who certainly has a matchless way with words, said
recently, "The nation waits with bated breath to see if, this term, the
court will strike 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance.  Liberals are
so desperate for this to happen that some of them are actually praying for
it."

Mr. McDermott will no doubt become the poster child for the effort to
thoroughly secularize our nation.  He is already revered by secularists for
his action in June 2002, when the House of Representatives voted to condemn
the 9th Circuit Court's ruling that declared the Pledge unconstitutional.
With a vote of 416-to-2, the House adopted the measure, with Rep. McDermott
voting "present."  Then in a March 2003 resolution, Rep. McDermott joined
with six other "no" voters in refusing to condemn the 9th Circuit ruling.

Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, said, "While Jim
McDermott may be in the minority in the House of Representatives, he does,
unfortunately, 'represent' many on the lunatic fringe of American politics
who are increasingly active and energized this year.  In the 'civil war'
over values, either McDermott's worldview will prevail or our worldview,
that recognizes God as the author of our liberty, will prevail."

The chief problem, however, is that those in this lunatic fringe are
characteristically portrayed in the so-called mainstream media as holding
conventional viewpoints.

Conjecture is treated as truth.  We see it every day.

The mainstream media hold what have become established views on issues such
as abortion, evolution and homosexual rights that counter the mindset of
millions of Americans.  But they treat these views as fact, purposely
disregarding and discounting as irrelevant the views of those who do not
accept these "truths."

This is how our nation will become increasingly secularized and divided.  It
is a tragedy of immense proportions that so many of our fellow Americans
simply fall into lockstep with the trend-as-truth mentality.

That is why it behooves every one of us who loves America and the foundation
on which it was built to uphold the legacy of our Forefathers by taking a
stand for our religious freedoms.  Unless we rise up and take action - a
good first step would be to vote out the Jim McDermotts of the day - our
children will one day wake in a vast secularist wasteland that used to be
America.