Michael Newdow is back in court again today, fighting a lonely battle for atheists, Hindus, polytheists and non-Abrahamic religions everywhere. He got the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to agree the government should not be in the religion business, only to have the Supreme Court rule he had no standing. Years later, the self-taught lawyer has now brought a qualified plaintiff to the same court:

Newdow, representing the parents of a child in a Sacramento-area public school, was returning to the 9th Circuit, where he persuaded the court five years ago to strike down the [Pledge of Allegiance] in public schools. The U.S. Supreme Court later nullified that ruling on procedural grounds, and Newdow brought a new case that has now reached the 9th Circuit again… The same three judges also today considered a separate case brought by Newdow challenging the “In God We Trust” motto on U.S. currency. Newdow argues the motto violates the separation of church and state. [Link]

When it comes to ceremonial invocations of religion, not even conservatives like Andrew Sullivan are in his corner. But the God references in American currency and the Pledge were inserted during the Red Scare in the ’50s, they were never intrinsic. The founders of this country were largely deists, not Christians; Thomas Jefferson was famously tolerant toward other religions like Islam. The singular ‘God’ was specifically intended to be Abrahamic, not one having any relation to polytheistic religions. And though some branches of Hinduism, for example, argue monotheism with a polytheistic face, others are literally polytheist at their core.

The true small-government conservative position on this is simple: ‘taint any business of the government to be promoting any form of religion. The honey for the world’s best workers is not just jobs, but tolerance and welcome. Stamp a single religion on the currency, make your kids recite a Christian pledge, and you add yet another reason for the talented to head to more tolerant pastures.

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