While the Senate argued about whether teaching religion was a good idea or not, the House was doing its best to get God through the classroom door.
Last night Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, got her Texas-pledge altering House Bill 1034 through the House on a 142-1 vote. Only our own Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, stood up to this bill that would cram the words “under God” into the text. Because, without it, Christianity has obviously become a marginalized, minority religion in the state of Texas.
The bill analysis, the tool by which the Lege measures the impact of a law, claims that “references to God have been included in important documents such as the Declaration of Independence” (see today’s earlier posting why that’s specious). But it ignores the fact that the original authors of many other significant documents, such as (oops) the national Pledge of Allegiance, did not include those words. Apart from the fact that the words “under God” weren’t added to the Pledge until 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, it’s absolutely spot-on. It would bring the Texas pledge into line with the U.S. pledge – rewritten on a political whim.
This article appears in May 18 • 2007.
