Quote Originally Posted by bipper
Its a conundrom. Our forefathers were christain, whom wanted to [strike]make a haven for freedom to worship[/strike] make more money for the English empire.
Why does everybody think America was founded on Puritan principles? Roanoke and Jamestown were the first English settlements in America, and they were there for Financial reasons by the Virginia company. Same reason the Massachusetts Bay colony was founded, and most of the other colonies, not counting Plymouth.

Not only that, but the majority of the founding fathers were Deists (Not in the general believing in a god sense, but in the "a god created everything, but he hasn't done anything for years, sense,) with the notable exceptions (there are others, but these are the more famous)of Jay, Washington, and Franklin (Quaker). Not only that, but (excluding Washington) the first presidents, up to Jackson I think, were Deists of the Enlightenment variety.

America was founded to preserve people's life, libery and pursuit of happiness (property), and therefore establishes freedom of religion and freedom from religion.

As for leaving it up to tradition, why don't we just leave slavery up to tradition? Why didn't we make the USA a monarchy because of tradition? Traditions are the remnants of values that no longer hold sway in the modern world.

Anyway, the original pledge, as written by Francis Bellamy, is:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Of course this doesn't make it any better for it to be teacher led, take up school time, etc, but I felt that it should at least be posted in here.