forwarded email

I received a forward today about an NBC poll and religious beliefs. These always get me in trouble because I feel to need to respond to them with an alternative point of view. Here is the letter I got today.
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Do You Believe in God?
NBC this morning had a poll on this question. They had the highest number of responses that they have ever had for one of their polls, and the percentage was the same as this:
86% to keep the words, IN God We Trust and God in the Pledge of Allegiance14% against.
That is a pretty 'commanding' public response. I was asked to send this on if I agreed or delete if I didn't. Now it is your turn ... It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, I have a very hard time understanding why there is such a mess about having "In God We Trust" on our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why is the world catering to this 14%?>> AMEN! If you agree, pass this on, if not, simply delete. In God We Trust
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Here is my reply
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Dear {name removed}
I wouldn't worry about it. I don't see uscatering to the 14% anytime soon. That would alienate 86% of the voters and that's just not happening. But its interesting, the words "under God" were added to the pledge on June 14, 1954 while the original pledge was written in 1892. In fact, the major reason the words "under God" were added was to fight the fear of communism. David Greenberg says:

The legislative history of the 1954 act stated that the hope was to "acknowledge the dependence of our people and our Government upon … the Creator … [and]deny the atheistic and materialistic concept of communism. {I had the link here, to the article, but it didn't copy right}

Essentially those 2 words were added for political reasons. This upsets me. God should not be used as a political tool to fight the commies. I'm not proposing that you stop saying "under God" in the pledge. However, I would put forth the hypothesis that Christians should not make pledges of loyalty to anyone other than to God and to His church. After all, a Christian is called to be a man of his word and should the goals of the country ever seperate from the goals of God, and a Christian has pledged his loyalty to both, then he must break his word. Also, as mentioned earlier, the pledge of Allegiance attempted to manipulate God by forcing Him to fight the Reds. That doesn't sit well with me.

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Its not as well done as previous replies have been, but its not really a topic I have that much of a passion for. Ah well, I needed to write something on the blog.