Margo Lucero did a stupid thing. The Jefferson County middle school guidance counselor substituted the words “under God” with “under your belief system” while leading the Pledge of Allegiance last Wednesday.
Lucero said later that she did it on the spur of the moment to make the Pledge sound more inclusive in the shadow of a Columbine anniversary, but now realizes that it was a mistake.
Judging from the reaction to Lucero’s gaffe, however, you might think that she had urged school children to bow to Satan, give fealty to Osama or burn their parents’ Bibles. The overreaction to Lucero’s unthinking moment was as pronounced and predictable as is the larger battle being waged around the nation over the role of religion in public life.
KCNC-Channel 4 reported last Friday that Jeffco school officials were flooded with angry calls from parents. Children, meanwhile, were quoted whining that the one-day mini-detour from the standard Pledge left them “confused” and “ticked off.” One student even went so far as to say that Lucero should be fired for her transgression.
School officials, meanwhile, tripped over one another apologizing for Lucero’s mistake. “It was completely inappropriate,” Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said. “We completely believe any teacher or student has the right to follow their individual conscience. However, when leading children, you adhere to the Pledge of Allegiance.”
Later, school officials told Channel 4 that while staff members have a right to their own personal beliefs, those beliefs shouldn’t be imposed upon the children.
That’s right. Despite the First Amendment’s Establishing Clause, only the state gets to impose a religious belief upon children in our public schools. And the only religious beliefs that count in this particular equation are those of the Cold War-era politicians who wedged “under God” into an otherwise perfectly fine pledge in 1954 because they somehow thought it would help us beat the Soviets. Teaching children that we are a nation “under God” is OK because a majority of people say so and because its use in the Pledge has become a sort of “ceremonial deism” that is permitted by law.
But suggesting once to children that we might be a nation under God, or many different gods, or something like a god, or no god at all, is high treason. So much for the First Amendment, right?
The Pledge itself, remember, was written by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister and Christian Socialist, in 1892. His vision reflected the ideas of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, author of the American socialist utopian novels “Looking Backward” (1888) and “Equality” (1897).
Lucero’s mistake was one of inclusion. The words “under your belief system” obviously includes the notion “under God” as a subset. She shouldn’t have said it, especially without clearing it first with her bosses, who surely would have rejected the request. And she should be reprimanded for not following protocol. But the reaction to her mistake was one of exclusion. The idea that we are a nation only “under God” and that anyone who says otherwise, even once, over a loudspeaker, is teaching a lesson that ought not be taught.
I don’t know about you, but between inclusion and exclusion, I’d rather have my kids erring on Lucero’s side than on the side of the newly constituted posse that now is out to get her.
Denver attorney and journalist Andrew Cohen is a CBS News legal analyst and a contributor to The Denver Post.
