September 23, 2005

One of the most obnoxious clichés in Hollywood horror movies shows a monster-or a slasher-who looks reassuringly dead, suddenly spring to life to frighten the audience one last time.

That same pattern applies to atheist activist Michael Newdow, with his relentless war against the Pledge of Allegiance.

Most Americans assumed his hysterical objections to the words "under God" had been laughed out of court, but Newdow found a new federal judge to rule in his favor.

While we await definitive rulings from the Supreme Court, this case has already performed one public service:

proving it's secular militants, not religious conservatives, who seek radical change.

With their war on long-established religious symbols-"in God we trust" on  money, or the song "God Bless America"-these separationist extremists seek dramatically redefined, God-free public institutions.

They want an America that's never existed before - with little reason to believe their revolution offers improvement.

I'm Michael Medved.

Beyond The News Commentaries, produced daily by Salem Communications, bring concise and penetrating insight to everything from the current headlines to challenges facing the church, from our culture wars to the Middle East conflict and from Hollywood to Washington, D.C. These daily features cover politics, culture, religion and science with perspective from the sharpest minds in the Christian and conservative world today: David Aikman, Terry Eastland, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, Albert Mohler, Dennis Prager and Janet Parshall.