To anyone who is not a U.S citizen feel free to chime in and express your opinion!
I was at an event (non religious)and we had to say the pledge of allegiance. I usually don’t have a problem with the Pledge of allegiance( minus the whole under god thing) but after we were done my boss said “Amen”.
I was pretty disturbed by it.
I understand believing in god but this was a non religious event and “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
What do you guys think?
I’m as religious as the next guy. Actually on the SDMB usually I’m considerably more religious than the next guy. But I never heard of saying “Amen” after the pledge, although as beowulff points out it simply means “be it so.”
Maybe, if he prays a lot, he wasn’t paying attention and just said ‘amen’ out of habit. I can’t tell you how many times my mind has wandered during a phone call with a co-worker leading me to nearly end with “Love you” as if I were talking to my wife.
The Pledge on the other hand pretty much IS a religious statement; that was the point of adding “under God” to it. When you get right down to it, as presently written it’s basically a prayer or a close relative; it’s not too surprising someone would add “amen” to it just as he does other prayers.
I’ve done it in person–and the person thought I was hitting on them.
And, even when my church does whole pageants for the Fourth of July, even with a whole speech about the meaning of the pledge, I’ve never heard anyone say “Amen” afterwards.
And, yes, your boss could force you to say pretty much anything, in the sense that he could fire you for not saying it. Whether that’s fair or not is debatable, but it is how the world works. Unless you work for the government.
How it is remotely a prayer? It is, as the name implies, a pledge of allegiance. It says “I am on the side of the flag and the country it represents”. the rest is just embellishment. The “under God” is a mere additional descriptor of the country along with “indivisible” and “with liberty and justice for all”. It is a declarative statement; there is no supplication or similar involved.
And saying “Amen” is ridiculous, although not something I’d get all up in someone’s grill about.
“Under God” was not originally part of the Pledge (which has been modified several times.) It was added deliberately in 1954 to exclude atheists (who were considered synonomous with communists at the time). It’s been a prayer every since: specifically and deliberately a religious invocation. This is often derided by the right as liberal hyperbole, but in fact is the STATED GOAL of adding those words by 15 different resolutions in Congress and the Knights of Columbus (who sponsored the change).
Also worth noting is the myth that the Supreme Court upheld it as non-religious – they did no such thing (instead weaselling out on a technicality). I’ve heard from legal folks that, given it’s history, it would almost certainly be found unconstitutional even by a conservative Supreme Court if they were forced to rule on the establishment clause.
You don’t have to say the pledge unless you’re a child in a private school (public schools can’t force students to recite it), but that aside, this is the first time I’ve heard of someone saying amen after the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s a religious exercise but it’s not a prayer; the pledge is directed at the flag itself and at the United States. On the other hand Dictionary.com says it is sometimes used after “formal statement[s]” other than prayers.
I don’t say the pledge or things like it in the first place because I find these kinds of declarations pointless and a bit creepy, but even before I came to that conclusion, I wouldn’t have said amen afterward and I probably would have been surprised by someone who did. These days I’d be really confused.
