2002 – Resolution Regarding the Pledge of Allegiance
WHEREAS in an apparent declaration of war against God, a panel of the United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because it describes our country as “one nation under God,” and
WHEREAS this court decision came because an atheist filed the action because his daughter was offended when the students in her elementary school recited the Pledge of Allegiance, and
WHEREAS all of our founding fathers honored the Word of God and used Biblical principles in developing our foundational documents including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, and
WHEREAS the principle of separation of church and state has been perverted from the founding fathers’ principle of no state church to the absolute exclusion of God and Christianity from any matters pertaining to government or public functions, threatening the tax-exempt status of churches and religious institutions, as well as abridging the first-amendment rights of believers, and
WHEREAS this extreme abuse of the principle of the separation of church and state contradicts the decisions of our nation’s Continental Congress to expend funds for the building of churches for Native Americans and the common practice of holding regular church services in the Capitol building, and
WHEREAS closer scrutiny of the correspondence between the Danbury Baptist Association and President Thomas Jefferson, the only contemporary documents containing the words “separation of church and state,” belies today’ s extreme misapplication of the principle prohibiting the exercise of religious freedom in government or public settings,
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that we the members of the Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America meeting in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, on June 25-27,2002, do hereby condemn the error of the panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and affirm the national honor of God understood and accepted through 1954 when the words “under God” were made a welcome addition in the Pledge of Allegiance, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we continue to educate our churches and the people of our nation regarding the true principle of church-state separation as it was understood and exercised by the founding fathers of our nation and supported by the courts until the close of the twentieth century, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we strive to preserve our God-given rights as guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States and continue to seek that our nation truly be “under God,” and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that we will pray and communicate with our Senators and Representatives our alarm at the Court’s decision and press for its reversal either through legislation or by the interven-