The Pledge of Allegiance Fight Is Personal for Her

Renee Giachino Bookout is fighting to keep “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.

She's the general counsel and senior vice president of the Center for Individual Freedom, a nonpartisan organization based in Alexandria, Va. The organization is one of several that has filed friend-of-the-court briefs urging the Supreme Court to keep the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case March 24.

Giachino-Bookout, who has three children, spoke to Register correspondent Carlos Briceño from her home in Gulf Breeze, Fla., about why retaining the words are so important.

When you were a child and you recited the pledge, how important was the phrase “under God” to you?

I was born and raised in Michigan. I come from a very strong family of faith. I have surrounded myself with people who share my faith. This is a small story, but it is enlightening in the sense that to have a strong faith in God and to pronounce that faith will help us through so many things in our lives.

On Sept. 1, I lost a college roommate and two of her children in a very tragic plane accident. Her husband and their third child survived. Without [the witness of] their faith, I don't know that I could've gotten through it, or how I could've helped my children or my spouse get through it. …

It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I sat down and thought maybe some of my passion for [the Pledge of Allegiance] case is because I have a renewed faith with the passing of someone so close to me. When you lose someone your age and lose two children the same ages as your children, you realize we are mortal but you don't need to be afraid of that. I have witnessed the tremendous power of faith.

Her husband got up at the memorial, and he said, “Don't ask, ‘Why me?’ I don't ask God, ‘Why them?’ I thank God for the time I had with them. For the time he loaned them to me.” …

If we were to take “one nation, under God” out of the pledge, I couldn't answer the questions my children would have as to why we couldn't pronounce our beliefs.

How has your faith affected you in your career?

I have the extreme pleasure to blend my personal and professional lives. When there is an issue that is extremely important to me, such as the voucher case or the pledge case, my professional life can be an outlet for me, and I can take the passion I have on a personal level from my Catholic upbringing and bring it into my work for the center. It validates the work I do as a lawyer.

I have extreme pride in what I do because it's so genuine. For me to go in and say, “We need to keep ‘one nation, under God’ in the pledge” means a lot more to me because I'm Catholic and Christian than it would if I weren't. I truly believe what I'm arguing. I'm not doing it because I have an ethical obligation to represent my client. I'm representing myself.

Tell me about how you're trying to build awareness about this case at your church.

I've spearheaded a fund-raising campaign in our church — we belong to St. Ann's in Gulf Breeze. Our organization was originally going to do this. But we found it a little overwhelming to try to do a fund-raiser of the magnitude it needed to be to make a difference. So my church took it over, and we are selling car magnets with the American flag on them that say, “One nation, under God.”

We are encouraging all of our parishioners and anyone we come in touch with to help us spread the message. We've encouraged people to buy them for their car or the cars of their family and friends nationwide to send a message that we are and must remain one nation, under God.

The members of our Edge/Life-Teen programs [middle school and high-school-age youth groups] are selling the magnets.

Why is it important to keep “under God” in the pledge?

From a professional standpoint, God has been present since the Founding Fathers developed the Constitution. There was never this wall separating the church and state. I think it has been misinterpreted. I think the wall is slowly breaking down.

Professionally, this was an important case because we really need for people to understand what is meant by the establishment clause and that it is not a wall separating church and state. It means the Founding Fathers never intended for the government to establish a religion.

But there is also the free exercise part of the First Amendment, where the government isn't going to interfere with people's exercise of their religion. When you read the pledge, we argue in our brief, you pledge allegiance to the flag. In all the words you recite after that, you describe what our nation stands for. And God is and always will be a part of the fabric that formed the flag and our nation. That's very important. And our children need to understand that.

When I was putting my 5-year-old to bed the other day, after saying prayers, she turned to me and said, “Are there really people who don't believe in God and Jesus?” And, sadly, I honestly answered her and said Yes. And she sighed a big heavy sigh and said, “Oh mommy, when they die and go to heaven, they will believe. And they will believe because they'll see Jesus and God.”

She's too young to really understand what's happening with the Pledge of Allegiance. But she knows the words to the pledge. And I don't know how I could honestly answer her if she came home next month and asked me, “Why did they take ‘under God’ out of the pledge?” I couldn't answer that. To her, to have God in our lives and to believe as a 5-year-old really means something to her.

I think it would be impossible for her and even my 8- or 10-year-old to comprehend that other people are telling us it's not okay to believe. It's not okay to espouse our beliefs. To shout our beliefs. They just couldn't understand that. It's something I don't want to have to answer.

Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.