The New Jersey high school student who is opposing a group that says the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance discriminates against atheists tells Newsmax that those controversial words need to remain in the pledge.
"The phrase 'one nation under God' sums up the history and values that have made our country great," Samantha Jones told Ed Berliner on "MidPoint" on
Newsmax TV Wednesday.
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"It acknowledges that our rights don't come from it. It comes from a higher power so they can't take that away," she explained.
The lawsuit over the Pledge of Allegiance was filed by the American Humanist Association in a New Jersey state court on behalf of an anonymous atheist family, claiming that the pledge violates the Constitution,
Fox News reported.
Jones with the help of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is defending the right of students to say "one nation under God" in the pledge, saying that those words serve a patriotic purpose, but don't represent any religion.
"America is such a diverse country," Jones, 17, told Newsmax.
"There are many different people with different beliefs who call this country home," she explained.
"Everyone's beliefs, including the atheists, are perfected by the phrase 'one nation under God' because it does acknowledge that our rights don't come from the government, but from a higher power so the government can't take away the basic human rights they did not create," she contends.
The New Jersey high school student says that she's "only gotten encouragement" from her fellow classmates.
"They were surprised that someone would take 'under God' out of the Pledge of Allegiance," she said.
"They're just confused why anybody would want to take this out," she added.
There was a hearing Wednesday in the Monmouth County Superior Court over the lawsuit, where Jones along with the school district and other organizations made the case for why the lawsuit should be dismissed, saying that the Pledge of Allegiance is not compulsory at the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District and that students are able to sit out, if they want,
The Star-Ledger is reporting.
The judge refrained from making a decision at the hearing.
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