Worthy Opinions » Atheist Michael Newdow At It Again: Wants ‘So Help Me God’ Removed From Oath of Office

By Khristov Exoucia

Newdow is at it again. This time, he’s seeking an injunction from the federal district court in Washington against Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, and Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren in an attempt to remove all references to God from the ceremony.

Newdow said he wants to take the phrase “so help me God” out of the oath of office and cut the invocation prayer because any references to God or religion violate the Constitution.

This is the third such lawsuit by Newdow who attempted to have the God reference removed from the swearing in ceremonies of George W. Bush in 2001 and 2005.

Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing over and over again then expecting different results.

Newdow contradicts himself when he states, “Equality is important to me, we should show equal respects for all of our citizens, regardless of their race, gender or religion.”

This means that according to Newdow Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, and Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren are not citizens.

He affords the permission for President-elect Barack Obama to choose to add the words so that must mean Obama is a citizen (that is still up in the air by the way for some so we’ll save that for another time), but the other persons involved in the ceremony as soon as they are involved in the ceremony give up their rights as citizens?

Somehow Newdow believes that to be true so would that mean that afterwards all three men would have to apply for citizenship from scratch or would he give them permission to be citizens later?

Then Newdow plays his own hand when according to the complaint, the plaintiffs “have no objection at this time” if President-elect Barack Obama chooses to add the words himself.

In other words (the words, the words, the words), it would be OK if Obama adds the phrase on his own. But if Roberts “prompts” Obama to recite the offending phrase by offering the words himself that would amount to a “state actor” endorsing religion. All of this according to Newdow.

No objection at this time? Will there be an objection later? Just who is running the nation anyhow?

Apparently Newdow and 17 co-plaintiffs think they are the only people who know what is best for America, the President and a tradition that has used the phrase “so help me God” since 1933. This must be what ‘Progressives’ mean by progression when it is actually regression and a personal agenda of a vocal minority to attempt World War I era Facism in a post-modern setting.

Newdow is a California lawyer and self-proclaimed atheist who unsuccessfully tried to remove the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.

UCLA’s Eugene Volokh, for one, doesn’t seem to like the suit’s chances. He writes: “The lawsuit’s Establishment Clause argument about the inaugural prayers is foreclosed by Marsh v. Chambers (1983), which held that legislative prayers are generally constitutionally permissible, even to the extent they may endorse religion, because of the long tradition of such prayers dating back to the same Congress that proposed the Establishment Clause.”

Newdow is like a rash that won’t go away because despite repeated failure on his part to think for the entire rest of the USA, rewrite history and tradition the possibility that he will return again is sure, barring an uninsurable “Act of God”.