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{"id":595,"date":"2009-04-29T20:29:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-29T20:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/orthodixie\/2009\/04\/touchstone-why-subscribe.html"},"modified":"2009-04-29T20:29:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-29T20:29:00","slug":"touchstone-why-subscribe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/orthodixie\/2009\/04\/touchstone-why-subscribe.html","title":{"rendered":"TOUCHSTONE: Why Subscribe?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>I hope the editors at TOUCHSTONE<\/a> will forgive my lifting some lines from their latest issue<\/a> \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe US Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from a high-school football coach who was banned from bowing his head during student-led team prayers. Without comment, the nation\u2019s highest court ended Coach Marcus Borden\u2019s efforts to overturn a township decision that, as a public employee, Borden cannot mix religion with his work as a coach. The High Court\u2019s decision leaves intact a federal appeals court\u2019s April 2008 decision that Borden\u2019s desire to bow his head and take a knee during team prayer is an endorsement of religious activity at a public school. (RNS, 3\/4\/09)\u201d \u2014 p. 41, NEWS <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s Under God

One nation under God \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIs this phrase from the US Pledge of Allegiance constitutional? Why should a secular state that is supposed to be neutral on religion want to include such an affirmation in its pledge?<\/p>\n

In Homer\u2019s Odyssey<\/span>, Odysseus has been shipwrecked trying to get home from the Trojan War. He washes up on shore in a strange land. When he meets the inhabitants, there is a burning question in his mind: Who are these people? \u2018Savages are they, strangers to courtesy? Or gentle folk who know and fear the gods?\u2019<\/p>\n

If they recognize the gods, there are certain standards of behavior he can reasonably hope for from them, for Zeus cares for wayfarers and will \u2018avenge the unoffending guest\u2019 who is mistreated. But people who do not believe this might do anything. And so it plays out: The Phaiakaians, who honor the same pantheon, care for him, but the Cyclops, who \u2018cares not a whistle for your thundering Zeus,\u2019 devours half his men. Even a false religion may be better than no religion at all.<\/p>\n

Individuals in our country have the right to believe in any god or no god. But is is important that the state, which upholds that right, conceive itself as under the same higher authority. If there is nothing above the state, the state becomes absolute. When the state becomes absolute, freedom is a myth. Thus, a democracy capable of guaranteeing freedom of religion \u2013even for atheists \u2014 is possible only if it is \u2018under God.\u2019 Christians should be thankful that our official documents still recognize this fact, and citizens of every faith should pray that it stays that way.\u201d \u2014 Donald T. Williams, p. 5 \u2013 QUODLIBET <\/span><\/p>\n

In every issue there is so, so very much more \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

I told Fr Patrick Henry Reardon last summer at the Village: \u201cEver since Florence King left National Review, the only back page that\u2019s truly no-miss-read-worthy is yours.\u201d <\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it time <\/span>you subscribed<\/a>?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"