Letter: Don’t forget our heritage

Wednesday, March 19, 2003 | 9:04 a.m.

The current angst surrounding the Pledge of Allegiance in schools and prayer at school functions shows just how far some in our culture have separated themselves from America's heritage.

Centuries ago, those coming to America to live yearned the freedom to worship the God of the Bible as they pleased. Their wishes were codified in 1791, when the Constitution's First Amendment was ratified. Its words: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

This amendment applies to Congress, not the State of Nevada, and certainly not the Clark County School District. It is too bad that over time, court rulings, fueled by political careers and judges who claim to have absolute knowledge of what our founders really meant by their writings, have led us from those easily understandable words.

Legalists will claim that the U.S. Supreme Court should have the final say in the matter of prayer in schools. Their collective wisdom is, at best, a mixed bag. Especially when the court tries to apply a judicial solution to a political problem, such as prayer in schools. The Dred Scott decision, which proclaimed that a slave is property, nothing more, and could never be a citizen, and the Roe v. Wade ruling, which allows abortion on demand, are two cases where the court's rulings have been far from supreme.

There is hope in the court's heritage, though. The first chief justice of the court, the Honorable John Jay, wrote in 1816, "Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." Only 50 years ago Justice William O. Douglas wrote, "we are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being."

May we not forget our Biblical heritage in the days ahead. It is that heritage of faith and worship that has made this country the envy of those throughout the world who seek freedom, human rights and dignity.

MIKE MILLER