The Pledge of Allegiance
quote:
Originally posted by thefrey:
Are you sure it isn’t Terry Pratchett? He has covered the topic quite a bit in his books. Small Gods was the comprensive coverage of the topic, but it has also been touched upon in the Last Continent and Hogfather.
Nah, t’isn’t Pratchett. Though he does deal with the subject. It’s Ellison’s [i]Deathbird Stories[/i], which is sadly out of print (though you can get it used online for fairly cheap). A really good contempo take on the same theme (not a collection of shorts like Ellison’s, and not comic in nature like Pratchett’s) is Neil Gaiman’s [i]American Gods[/i], which pits the gods of the Old World (who were brought to this country by those who settled here) against the new American gods. It’s neat.
My thoughts? The “under god” reference should have never been in there to begin with. Even if most people believe in some kind of god, there are those who most certainly don’t, and some that — while they may believe in some deity — aren’t comfortable with having their deity mucking about in government. And while it can be argued that “under god” sounds generic enough, it’s plainly obvious what deity is being referred to (aren’t Christians the only folks who refer to their deity by its job description, because JHVH-1’s name is too “powerful” to speak, else all of creation come undone?).
–Aleck