You’re totally welcome to include the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance if you so choose. However, NBC shouldn’t be subjected to backlash from this nation’s religious community for excluding the words, let alone be forced to defend themselves against allegations of “religious bigotry.” This is just absolutely absurd.
Would any of you like to provide a logical reason as to why NBC should be under fire for omitting the reference to God from the Pledge of Allegiance during a broadcast on their network? And, no, saying “it’s disrespectful to Christians” or “they’re being un-American” does not fly as logical reasoning.
Under God is still part of the Pledge. It is not just disrespectful to Christians if you leave it out, it is disrespectful to many religions. Without an omnipotent being to follow and hold us to standards, we are no better than animals (or hippies). Leaving out “under God” from the pledge of allegiance would be just like leaving out “with liberty and justice for all.” Though some people (Commies) don’t like liberty and justice, it is a principle that American’s demand.
As much as I would love hearing your bullshit understanding of logic, why don’t you just save us all time and go masturbate to a collage of Stephen Hawking and Barack Obama pictures, you liberal geed.
Same reason as Jason Mraz omitting “bombs bursting” on purpose when he sang the National Anthem recently. (In fact I’m surpised that has not been on here, somebody needs to haze his geed ass). Making a political statement is fine and 1st amendment rights recognize that. However, our Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem are written the way they are for a reason. Changing the words is a pretty strong insult. If Congress wants to officially change the words, then that is legal, although unfortunate. NBC knowingly defied American tradition and creed. They may not need to go to prison for that, but they should definitely not do that again.
The words “under God” are a part of the Pledge by order of a government of legitimately elected representatives, and NBC as a corporation benefits from the protections provided by that same body of law.
That body of law has declared that one ought to pledge allegiance in a particular way, and in return for that allegiance it will serve as an external protection of the rights of its citizens. By benefiting from those protections without following the form of the Pledge laid down under legitimate legal authority, NBC violates the social contract which it depends on, refusing to conform to the laws which it demands that others conform to in order that it continue to exist.
By modifying the pledge as they saw fit, NBC ignored the entire process from which American government derives its legitimacy, which is a form of legal free-loading, an illegitimate and unacceptable practice of picking and choosing.
“Under God” was only added to the pledge midway through the 1940’s. around the time it began being said every morning at schools. “Under god” was an addition in order to help comfort the american people, of which the majority were christian. Therefore it is not actually a part of the original pledge of allegiance.
You know why it was added? Because during the 1950s we had a little thing called the Cold War, and guess who was a self-proclaimed atheist nation. The Soviet Union. That is why the phrase was included, to distinguish our nation “under God” from the atheist Soviet Union. So maybe you should check out Cuba, they don’t like God there either
I can’t believe that some of you tree hugging, athiest liberals got bids. Those of you defending the actions of NBC need to think little deeper before you respond. Kudos to those of you who have critiicized NBC’s actions. The arguements of egotisticalWASP and Beerios are honestly some of the stupidest, most illogical things I’ve ever heard or read. The fact that you believe corporations should simply be allowed to alter american tradition and legitimate, legal government rulings just because they so choose is utterly asinine. Beerios, your arguement that since it was not in the original pledge it doesn’t have to be included. That is along the same lines of suggesting that since a state was not an original colony of the United States one can choose to omit such a state from the country. Although it was not originally part of the pledge, our elected officials went through the proper precedings to have it included. Honestly, think before you speak and realize what type of website you are on.
Plus, the 1950s were fucking awesome. Women knew their place, we didn’t have a ton of homos running around, everyone smoked and drank, and America was kicking everyone’s ass around the world. 1950s are FaF
“Without an omnipotent being to follow and hold us to standards, we are no better than animals (or hippies)”
Are you retarded? You think its our belief in god that separates us from animals? How about our superior intelligence?
Also, countries like ours criticize countries like Iran for being a theocracy yet we still include phrases like “under god” in our pledge of allegiance. Having the phrase “under god” is un-American and NBC should be ashamed for apologizing for omitting it in their broadcast.
Insofar as the American government has legally decreed that “Under God” should be in the pledge through legitimate democratic channels, it’s the most American.
The difference between us and Iran is that we’re not openly murdering people in our country for their religion. Also it is our belief in a higher being that allowed for our intellectual progress. The first books were bibles. A lot of scientific advancement was done by monks and other clergymen. A belief in God gave us the drive to separate ourselves from the apes and lesser creatures.
Also I don’t know about your fraternity, but if I had just decided to omit a word or two from my creed, I would have been in bows and toes for days. The pledge is America’s creed.
” A belief in God gave us the drive to separate ourselves from the apes and lesser creatures.”
I’m not here to argue against God in the pledge, but this is fucking stupid. Christianity didn’t drive the human race to advance itself, it actually set it back a few hundred years in a well-known period called “The Dark Ages.” You know, when science and advancement were shunned by the Catholic Church and when all of those who tried to “separate ourselves from apes” as you put it were tortured or killed for heresy. Christianity has never advanced the human race in terms of knowledge, technology, or science (the things that separate us from animals), it has only gotten in the way.
And yes, I go to church weekly. That doesn’t mean I’m not willfully ignorant of my religion’s past.
The Dark Ages was caused by the barbarian invasion of the Roman Empire. The Dark ages saw lack of government structure with barbarians and vikings pillaging every village and city in their wake. Basically, Europe was one big clusterfuck. Christianity actually created structure during that time. Any problems with science from the Church were in the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Just needed to point out your terrible historical inaccuracies.
“Christianity has never advanced the human race in terms of knowledge, technology, or science (the things that separate us from animals), it has only gotten in the way.”
Monasteries copying scripts in the Dark Ages probably saved us a good thousand years of intellectual advancement.
The may have fucked up in the Crusades and shit, but it gave people the one true hope in their terrible life. Yes, there were bad people who used it as a place for power, but, as with everything, the majority of Christians at the time were good people.
I also want to add that Darwin excepted Christianity later in his life. Unlike what many ignorant atheists believe. AND, the beginning of the scientific revolution was started by men of faith who were trying to prove God’s existence, and it was the CATHOLIC Church that deemed them wrong and burned them. That’s another reason being a Protestant is great
The story of Darwin accepting Christianity has been shown to be bullshit. But I do agree that a large part of the scientific breakthroughs in history have been by the religious, although I don’t see what that proves.
I want to know why NBC thought that omitting “under God” would go over well. It’s 2011; the battle over the use of “under God” has been going for quite awhile now, and I would think they would know by now that omission is going to hurt their image a lot more than just leaving it in. In other words, why did they think it was a good idea to edit the existing pledge?
The answers of both FratlosopherKing and Year Around Frat are well-written and do a good job of supporting their reasoning, though I still have not read anything compelling regarding the refusal to acknowledge a generic God being “un-American.”
Yeah, I won’t defend the thesis that refusing to acknowledge a generic God is, strictly speaking, “un-American”, but if you don’t want to acknowledge the God, just don’t say the pledge. The SC has ruled that’s legitimate. Modifying the pledge is the un-American thing.
You don’t have to acknowledge a “generic God”, just that the pledge includes the phrase “under God” and as such, it would be improper to exclude it from a televised show broadcast to the American public. Just because Obama is the president of this country does give me the right or ability to exclude pledging allegiance to him as part of the “republic” the flag represents.
Ok dumbass, your original statement was as follows: “NBC shouldn’t be subjected to backlash from this nation’s religious community for excluding the words, let alone be forced to defend themselves against allegations of “religious bigotry.” This is just absolutely absurd”
Are you retarded? Should the government step in and tell the religious community that they’re not allowed to give nbc anymore backlash? Nobody is FORCING nbc to do anything. The network simply decided that if they want to keep the business of the “religious community” (or more likely just Americans that understand the importance of reciting the complete and correct pledge of allegiance to the symbol of our country) then they damn sure better apologize. It’s the American way to withdraw support of something you don’t agree with and that’s simply what people are doing.
Allow me to clarify for the public school-educated Alabamian: By allowing themselves to get so outraged by the omission of two words, the religious community is essentially forcing NBC to apologize for their “transgression.” It is embarrassing that people in this country would take such offense to this situation. You’re just as entitled to withdraw support as they are to not say “under God,” but you in turn look like an unintelligent buffoon.
This is America, a country founded on Christian beliefs and for the sole purpose of freely expressing them. If you don’t believe that then why didn’t the Founding Fathers say “One nation under Gods” (plural), or why did they even put it in there at all? If you liberals don’t believe in a “Christian God” or in the respect our beautiful country owes Him for our countless blessings, then you don’t deserve to live in it, or in my book at all. America, ultimate TFM.
America was founded on the principal of religious tolerance, so that people could freely express all religious beliefs, not just Christian ones. In addition, as Beerios said, the words “under God” were not added to the Pledge until the 1940’s, so the Founding Fathers had nothing to do with that phrasing at all.
In addition many of the Founding Fathers were Deists, who believed in a creator but not in organized religion or Christianity.
Please give America the respect it deserves by knowing its history.
You do realize that this country was founded because our founding Fathers openly rebelled. Calling out the Gov’t on things they did not approve of and expressing all their opinions, everyone who simply calls someone a liberal pussy is basically un-American. Life Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness is what this country was founded on, if an American finds happiness in something other then a “Christian God”, then they are simply being the best American they can be, while people like you who are forcing ideals on people are one step away from being a just like King George or a Terrorist. Have some respect for you fellow man, I believe that would be the Christian thing to do. Btw I’m a republican and I’m Catholic.
Didn’t say I was against rebellion. Didn’t say you could only be a Christian. And since when has respect for others been a TFM? America is great because of the Christian influences during its founding. And I’m pretty sure Jefferson, Washington, Franklin and a few others did not just consider themselves a “diest”.
“George Washington was, like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, a deist.”
[The Forge of Experience Volume One of James Thomas Flexner’s four volume biography of Washington; Little, Brown & Company; pps 244-245]
It’s the Pledge of Allegiance; it has specific words and rhythm to how it should be recited. No one has the right to change that because of their personal opinions. If anyone feels so strongly about the words that our elected officials chose to add to the Pledge, then run for office and change it the legal, American way. Don’t disrespect my country and fellow Americans by condescendingly thinking you are powerful, able, and legally liable to alter the words to a Pledge, when you have no right to do so. All these liberal pussies can’t be grateful that they are free and reside in the greatest countries in the world; I don’t try to change your life, so quit trying to change ours.
These Godless liberals are destroying our country
13 years ago at 12:18 pmNeeding the fear of god in order to pledge your allegiance to your country. NF
13 years ago at 12:38 pmnot another one of these people.
13 years ago at 6:03 pmYou’re totally welcome to include the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance if you so choose. However, NBC shouldn’t be subjected to backlash from this nation’s religious community for excluding the words, let alone be forced to defend themselves against allegations of “religious bigotry.” This is just absolutely absurd.
13 years ago at 12:42 pmget the fuck out of my country
13 years ago at 12:59 pmMotion to blackball egotisticalwasp. all of their posts are shit.
13 years ago at 1:01 pmsecond. EgotisticalWASP you are a disgrace to WASP’s everywhere.
13 years ago at 1:02 pmGTFO
13 years ago at 1:04 pmWould any of you like to provide a logical reason as to why NBC should be under fire for omitting the reference to God from the Pledge of Allegiance during a broadcast on their network? And, no, saying “it’s disrespectful to Christians” or “they’re being un-American” does not fly as logical reasoning.
13 years ago at 1:13 pmWell the pledge does include the phrase “under God” so why the fuck would you exclude that phrase? Besides being a liberal pussy.
13 years ago at 1:18 pmUnder God is still part of the Pledge. It is not just disrespectful to Christians if you leave it out, it is disrespectful to many religions. Without an omnipotent being to follow and hold us to standards, we are no better than animals (or hippies). Leaving out “under God” from the pledge of allegiance would be just like leaving out “with liberty and justice for all.” Though some people (Commies) don’t like liberty and justice, it is a principle that American’s demand.
-One who walks in the light of God
13 years ago at 1:20 pmAs much as I would love hearing your bullshit understanding of logic, why don’t you just save us all time and go masturbate to a collage of Stephen Hawking and Barack Obama pictures, you liberal geed.
13 years ago at 1:20 pmSame reason as Jason Mraz omitting “bombs bursting” on purpose when he sang the National Anthem recently. (In fact I’m surpised that has not been on here, somebody needs to haze his geed ass). Making a political statement is fine and 1st amendment rights recognize that. However, our Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem are written the way they are for a reason. Changing the words is a pretty strong insult. If Congress wants to officially change the words, then that is legal, although unfortunate. NBC knowingly defied American tradition and creed. They may not need to go to prison for that, but they should definitely not do that again.
13 years ago at 1:25 pmThe words “under God” are a part of the Pledge by order of a government of legitimately elected representatives, and NBC as a corporation benefits from the protections provided by that same body of law.
That body of law has declared that one ought to pledge allegiance in a particular way, and in return for that allegiance it will serve as an external protection of the rights of its citizens. By benefiting from those protections without following the form of the Pledge laid down under legitimate legal authority, NBC violates the social contract which it depends on, refusing to conform to the laws which it demands that others conform to in order that it continue to exist.
By modifying the pledge as they saw fit, NBC ignored the entire process from which American government derives its legitimacy, which is a form of legal free-loading, an illegitimate and unacceptable practice of picking and choosing.
tl;dr: Boom. Roasted.
13 years ago at 1:27 pmfuck you
13 years ago at 2:02 pm“Under God” was only added to the pledge midway through the 1940’s. around the time it began being said every morning at schools. “Under god” was an addition in order to help comfort the american people, of which the majority were christian. Therefore it is not actually a part of the original pledge of allegiance.
13 years ago at 2:02 pmYou know why it was added? Because during the 1950s we had a little thing called the Cold War, and guess who was a self-proclaimed atheist nation. The Soviet Union. That is why the phrase was included, to distinguish our nation “under God” from the atheist Soviet Union. So maybe you should check out Cuba, they don’t like God there either
13 years ago at 2:09 pmthose^
13 years ago at 2:58 pmI can’t believe that some of you tree hugging, athiest liberals got bids. Those of you defending the actions of NBC need to think little deeper before you respond. Kudos to those of you who have critiicized NBC’s actions. The arguements of egotisticalWASP and Beerios are honestly some of the stupidest, most illogical things I’ve ever heard or read. The fact that you believe corporations should simply be allowed to alter american tradition and legitimate, legal government rulings just because they so choose is utterly asinine. Beerios, your arguement that since it was not in the original pledge it doesn’t have to be included. That is along the same lines of suggesting that since a state was not an original colony of the United States one can choose to omit such a state from the country. Although it was not originally part of the pledge, our elected officials went through the proper precedings to have it included. Honestly, think before you speak and realize what type of website you are on.
13 years ago at 3:15 pmPlus, the 1950s were fucking awesome. Women knew their place, we didn’t have a ton of homos running around, everyone smoked and drank, and America was kicking everyone’s ass around the world. 1950s are FaF
13 years ago at 7:33 pmEgotisticalWASP NEEDS to be blackballed.
13 years ago at 1:29 pm“Without an omnipotent being to follow and hold us to standards, we are no better than animals (or hippies)”
Are you retarded? You think its our belief in god that separates us from animals? How about our superior intelligence?
13 years ago at 1:30 pmAlso, countries like ours criticize countries like Iran for being a theocracy yet we still include phrases like “under god” in our pledge of allegiance. Having the phrase “under god” is un-American and NBC should be ashamed for apologizing for omitting it in their broadcast.
Insofar as the American government has legally decreed that “Under God” should be in the pledge through legitimate democratic channels, it’s the most American.
13 years ago at 1:34 pmThe difference between us and Iran is that we’re not openly murdering people in our country for their religion. Also it is our belief in a higher being that allowed for our intellectual progress. The first books were bibles. A lot of scientific advancement was done by monks and other clergymen. A belief in God gave us the drive to separate ourselves from the apes and lesser creatures.
Also I don’t know about your fraternity, but if I had just decided to omit a word or two from my creed, I would have been in bows and toes for days. The pledge is America’s creed.
13 years ago at 1:44 pm“A belief in God gave us the drive to separate ourselves from the apes and lesser creatures.”
I’m pretty sure Darwin would fundamentally disagree with this misplaced notion.
13 years ago at 1:54 pm” A belief in God gave us the drive to separate ourselves from the apes and lesser creatures.”
I’m not here to argue against God in the pledge, but this is fucking stupid. Christianity didn’t drive the human race to advance itself, it actually set it back a few hundred years in a well-known period called “The Dark Ages.” You know, when science and advancement were shunned by the Catholic Church and when all of those who tried to “separate ourselves from apes” as you put it were tortured or killed for heresy. Christianity has never advanced the human race in terms of knowledge, technology, or science (the things that separate us from animals), it has only gotten in the way.
And yes, I go to church weekly. That doesn’t mean I’m not willfully ignorant of my religion’s past.
13 years ago at 1:55 pm^^*doesn’t mean I am willfully ignorant
13 years ago at 1:56 pmThe Dark Ages was caused by the barbarian invasion of the Roman Empire. The Dark ages saw lack of government structure with barbarians and vikings pillaging every village and city in their wake. Basically, Europe was one big clusterfuck. Christianity actually created structure during that time. Any problems with science from the Church were in the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Just needed to point out your terrible historical inaccuracies.
13 years ago at 2:44 pm“Christianity has never advanced the human race in terms of knowledge, technology, or science (the things that separate us from animals), it has only gotten in the way.”
Monasteries copying scripts in the Dark Ages probably saved us a good thousand years of intellectual advancement.
13 years ago at 3:36 pmThe may have fucked up in the Crusades and shit, but it gave people the one true hope in their terrible life. Yes, there were bad people who used it as a place for power, but, as with everything, the majority of Christians at the time were good people.
13 years ago at 7:36 pmI also want to add that Darwin excepted Christianity later in his life. Unlike what many ignorant atheists believe. AND, the beginning of the scientific revolution was started by men of faith who were trying to prove God’s existence, and it was the CATHOLIC Church that deemed them wrong and burned them. That’s another reason being a Protestant is great
13 years ago at 7:39 pmThe story of Darwin accepting Christianity has been shown to be bullshit. But I do agree that a large part of the scientific breakthroughs in history have been by the religious, although I don’t see what that proves.
13 years ago at 8:43 pmI want to know why NBC thought that omitting “under God” would go over well. It’s 2011; the battle over the use of “under God” has been going for quite awhile now, and I would think they would know by now that omission is going to hurt their image a lot more than just leaving it in. In other words, why did they think it was a good idea to edit the existing pledge?
13 years ago at 1:33 pmThe answers of both FratlosopherKing and Year Around Frat are well-written and do a good job of supporting their reasoning, though I still have not read anything compelling regarding the refusal to acknowledge a generic God being “un-American.”
13 years ago at 1:41 pmYeah, I won’t defend the thesis that refusing to acknowledge a generic God is, strictly speaking, “un-American”, but if you don’t want to acknowledge the God, just don’t say the pledge. The SC has ruled that’s legitimate. Modifying the pledge is the un-American thing.
13 years ago at 1:44 pmYou don’t have to acknowledge a “generic God”, just that the pledge includes the phrase “under God” and as such, it would be improper to exclude it from a televised show broadcast to the American public. Just because Obama is the president of this country does give me the right or ability to exclude pledging allegiance to him as part of the “republic” the flag represents.
13 years ago at 1:47 pmOk dumbass, your original statement was as follows: “NBC shouldn’t be subjected to backlash from this nation’s religious community for excluding the words, let alone be forced to defend themselves against allegations of “religious bigotry.” This is just absolutely absurd”
Are you retarded? Should the government step in and tell the religious community that they’re not allowed to give nbc anymore backlash? Nobody is FORCING nbc to do anything. The network simply decided that if they want to keep the business of the “religious community” (or more likely just Americans that understand the importance of reciting the complete and correct pledge of allegiance to the symbol of our country) then they damn sure better apologize. It’s the American way to withdraw support of something you don’t agree with and that’s simply what people are doing.
13 years ago at 2:11 pmAllow me to clarify for the public school-educated Alabamian: By allowing themselves to get so outraged by the omission of two words, the religious community is essentially forcing NBC to apologize for their “transgression.” It is embarrassing that people in this country would take such offense to this situation. You’re just as entitled to withdraw support as they are to not say “under God,” but you in turn look like an unintelligent buffoon.
13 years ago at 3:06 pmThis is America, a country founded on Christian beliefs and for the sole purpose of freely expressing them. If you don’t believe that then why didn’t the Founding Fathers say “One nation under Gods” (plural), or why did they even put it in there at all? If you liberals don’t believe in a “Christian God” or in the respect our beautiful country owes Him for our countless blessings, then you don’t deserve to live in it, or in my book at all. America, ultimate TFM.
13 years ago at 2:05 pmAmerica was founded on the principal of religious tolerance, so that people could freely express all religious beliefs, not just Christian ones. In addition, as Beerios said, the words “under God” were not added to the Pledge until the 1940’s, so the Founding Fathers had nothing to do with that phrasing at all.
13 years ago at 2:38 pmIn addition many of the Founding Fathers were Deists, who believed in a creator but not in organized religion or Christianity.
Please give America the respect it deserves by knowing its history.
How “freely” are we expressing Christian beliefs if you would leave us no other option?
13 years ago at 3:42 pmYou do realize that this country was founded because our founding Fathers openly rebelled. Calling out the Gov’t on things they did not approve of and expressing all their opinions, everyone who simply calls someone a liberal pussy is basically un-American. Life Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness is what this country was founded on, if an American finds happiness in something other then a “Christian God”, then they are simply being the best American they can be, while people like you who are forcing ideals on people are one step away from being a just like King George or a Terrorist. Have some respect for you fellow man, I believe that would be the Christian thing to do. Btw I’m a republican and I’m Catholic.
Love and Respect
13 years ago at 4:19 pm“Frataulogy.” Great name.
13 years ago at 4:32 pmDidn’t say I was against rebellion. Didn’t say you could only be a Christian. And since when has respect for others been a TFM? America is great because of the Christian influences during its founding. And I’m pretty sure Jefferson, Washington, Franklin and a few others did not just consider themselves a “diest”.
13 years ago at 6:53 pm“George Washington was, like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, a deist.”
13 years ago at 7:19 pm[The Forge of Experience Volume One of James Thomas Flexner’s four volume biography of Washington; Little, Brown & Company; pps 244-245]
Fuck! Well played, Order of Frat. There were no “diests” among the Founding Fathers. They were all Deists. You win this round.
13 years ago at 7:25 pmI noticed that too! It pissed me off so much I couldn’t watch for about 20 minutes
13 years ago at 2:19 pmOh and I guess NBC doesn’t know that libs and atheists don’t watch or play golf.
13 years ago at 2:24 pmA whole 20 minutes! You must have been all thuper pissed
13 years ago at 2:43 pmOld Row Old Money! You must be all thuper rich
13 years ago at 3:27 pmIt’s the Pledge of Allegiance; it has specific words and rhythm to how it should be recited. No one has the right to change that because of their personal opinions. If anyone feels so strongly about the words that our elected officials chose to add to the Pledge, then run for office and change it the legal, American way. Don’t disrespect my country and fellow Americans by condescendingly thinking you are powerful, able, and legally liable to alter the words to a Pledge, when you have no right to do so. All these liberal pussies can’t be grateful that they are free and reside in the greatest countries in the world; I don’t try to change your life, so quit trying to change ours.
13 years ago at 3:04 pmcountry*
13 years ago at 3:05 pmPledging your allegiance to anything. NF
13 years ago at 3:47 pmFuck you
13 years ago at 4:47 pmit’s hard to be bad at trolling, but thanks for the great example.
13 years ago at 5:01 pm