My basic take on this is that if you want to talk about God in a public speech, you can. I think if I were a politician I would end a speech someday with "praise Allah" (except I would look up the Arabic) just to see the reaction.

Trying to force anyone to submit to a religion (force the pledge of allegiance, etc.), now THAT'S wrong. But freedom of speech allowes for references.

Wanna discuss this more? See my forum! I need more discussions.

"Separation of Church and State" is not technically in the Constitution. It comes from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson. You mentioned the establishment clause, but that is not where it is recognized to come from. All that clause states is that one religious doctrine will not be favored over another; favoring the idea of God versus the ideas of atheism is an entirely different argument however. Just thought I'd point that out.

Hmph.

The "under God" phrase in the Pledge was added in the 1950's, when we were stuck in the midst of the Cold War.