President Barack Obama has been given a number of religious titles in the past year, ranging from "secular progressive" to "secret Muslim," yet all the while he has professed to be a Protestant Christian. Rather than delving into Obama's religion, let's start with an easier question:
Who is Michael Newdow?
You probably don't recognize the name, but you've all heard of him. Newdow, better known as "that guy," is an attorney best known for his work to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" from U.S. currency.
Despite failures in all of his attempts, Newdow was at it again as recently as this month - this time attempting to remove "so help me God" from the presidential oath at the inauguration.
Even with the support of numerous individuals and groups, Newdow once again failed to have those words stricken from the inaugural oath.
Mr. Newdow, why do you keep trying?
You're not going to win on constitutional grounds. The Constitution was drafted by an overwhelmingly Christian group to protect the freedom of religion, not freedom from it. The separation of church and state is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. The Constitution only prevents Congress from passing laws "respecting an establishment of religion."
Congress didn't pass a law to force anyone to say these things; they are said out of free will. It would be an unconstitutional compromise of free speech for any court to tell us otherwise. You would think that alone would be enough religious controversy for one inauguration. Wrong.
Yet another conflict started when Obama chose Rick Warren, a fiscally liberal, socially conservative evangelical preacher, to give the inaugural prayer.
This sent Obama's pro-gay-marriage support base up in arms. How could Obama possibly choose a preacher who didn't support gay marriage when he spent his campaign issuing pro-gay rhetoric like "my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman?"
Obama tried to soften the blow to his supporters by asking openly gay bishop Gene Robinson to say another prayer, but the gesture was met with a lukewarm reception. Then Warren offended more people by committing yet another blatant act of intolerance. He dared to use the name of Jesus Christ! In a Christian prayer!
Atheists, secular humanists and other groups who fancy themselves "progressive" need to get over the fact that some people are, in fact, Christian. Religion is a large part of many people's lives, including Obama's by his own admission. People like to talk about their religion and express it publically. And the Constitution's free exercise clause gives them every right to do this.
If Michael Newdow wants people to refrain from talking about their religion, he should find a better way to do it than filling the court system with frivolous publicity-stunt lawsuits that attempt to deprive people of their rights. Thankfully, we have the Constitution to prevent him from doing that.
Johnathan Lott is a political science and economics sophomore. His column appears on Thursdays.
