More on the Terrible G-Word

Loose Canon once thought that school prayer was a silly issue. Who cares if children can't say some prayer redolent of a vague civic religion? But as I've watched public schools turn out hooligans, I've changed my mind. The attempt to eradicate the notion (ever how vague) that we are a nation under God is likewise harmful to the commonweal. David Gerlernter notes that it is also ahistorical:

"When we invite our children to say the pledge, including 'one nation, under God,' we are asking them to repeat Lincoln's phrase, and perhaps even to feel his presence. Children who were reared as atheists, whose parents are wiser than Lincoln on the subject of God, are free to keep quiet.

"And even if children should feel coerced by peer pressure (as the lawsuits have argued) to say that terrible G-word, they won't be magically converted into Christians or Jews or God-believers of any stripe. In fact, children who don't believe in God might still like to be reminded how Lincoln saw this nation, might like to test drive the worldview of the man who saved the Union and set it on the path to justice.

"If that's unconstitutional, we have made a serious mistake somewhere along the line."