INTRODUCTION
I. The United States has become a less religious nation as we remove God from all aspects of public life.
A. Our forefathers were religious men; however they wanted to protect conflicting religious views. They took great effort crafting the Constitution of the United States to prevent the new government from “establishing an official religion” (Flowers, 2005); consequently guaranteeing “the equal right of every citizen to the free exercise of his religion” (Flowers, 2005).
II. In recent decades, as the United States evolves, with great effort we continue to remove religion, not only from the government, but our lives as well.
A. Consider the changes made to the Pledge of Allegiance over the years, the original version did not include the words, “under God”; the addition of those words occurred during the presidency of Eisenhower, but without the establishment of one specific religion. (Marsden, 2001)
B.
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In addition, Christmas was a time when you expected to hear “Merry Christmas” from others at school, work, or other public establishments. Today we have removed Christ by reducing the sentiment to simply “Happy Holidays”, although we continue to celebrate Christmas (Christ’s birthday) by giving gifts to family and friends.
C. Furthermore, businesses that rely on the public for commerce during what were Christian holidays have been able to use the loss of profit as a means to show “undue hardship” in court to avoid the requirement for providing religious accommodations in the workplace.
D. The United States is no longer a religious nation as we attempt to remove God from our Pledge of Allegiance, observe Christmas and Easter without the overt reference to God and finally, we allow businesses to avoid religious accommodation by undue hardship, including loss of profits, in the workplace. (Transition: Let’s examine attempts to remove “under God” from the Pledge of