Nothing inspires moral outrage in religious people — or in those who want to be perceived as religious (politicians, for example) — like a good church/state separation debate.

Take the furor currently raging over the 9th Circuit Court’s ruling that the phrase “one nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance violates the U.S. Constitution when children in public schools are required to recite it. Every media and political personality with a high horse to mount has mounted it this week, trumpeting his or her chagrin that the word “God” would be snatched from the mouths of America’s youth by a panel of lawyers wearing robes. It’s made for plenty of volatile coffee-room and water-cooler conversation in offices all across the land. I know I’ve received plenty of e-mail on the subject from hordes of my brethren this week, decrying this sacrilege.

All of which makes me scratch my chin and marvel.

I marvel not because it isn’t a sad, shameful thing that anyone would not want children to know of God, and speak of Him. It is, in fact, sad and shameful. The words of God should be on our lips wherever we go (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). And it’s not that I don’t empathize with those who find themselves in high dudgeon because legal wranglers would challenge a worthwhile notion: that the authority of God should be acknowledged and revered in every aspect of our lives, including public education.

No, the thing that causes me to sigh and shake my head at all this indignation is the blatant hypocrisy of it. And yes, friends, I mean hypocrisy among those who profess religion, and especially I mean among true Christians as defined in the New Testament.

The truth is that America is not “one nation under God.” We aren’t even close. We never have been. Christians — and here again I use the word in its Biblical sense, not in the way it is too often misappropriated by religions alien to the Scriptures — are an infinitesimally tiny minority in our society. Even if one stretches the boundaries of New Testament Christianity to the point of distortion, Christians number at best about one American in 280. I’ll save you the math: that’s roughly one-third of one percent of the population.

Does that sound like a citizenry that could legitimately advertise itself as a “nation under God”? Not to me either. And saying it — in schoolrooms or in courtrooms or on the tops of the highest mountains — doesn’t make it so.

America is a nation very much like the one God described through the prophet Isaiah, as reiterated by Jesus Himself: “These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:8-9; cf. Isaiah 29:13).

Coming from the overwhelming majority of American citizens, a pledge to be “one nation under God” is vain worship. They are not, and have no intention of becoming, what those words commit them to being. They will continue to practice the teachings of men and claim them as the teachings of God, if they bother to make any profession toward God at all. A pledge of fealty to God without any actual submission is at best empty rhetoric and at worst blasphemy. But few of my religious friends seem terribly upset about that. Most would rather people go on mindlessly mouthing a lie.

It is sinful to make a pledge to God and not keep it: “If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth” (Numbers 30:2; cf. Job 22:27; Psalm 56:12; Proverbs 20:25). Most people do precisely this when they recite the Pledge of Allegiance — make a vow to the Lord, then break their word. To tell God you will be “under Him,” then deny Him by your words, deeds and false religion, is nothing short of abominable.

“When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; for He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed — better not to vow than to vow and not pay” (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5). God’s word is clear: He would rather we not pledge anything to Him at all than pledge and not follow through. Jesus condemned the Pharisees of His day for this very thing — saying and not doing (Matthew 23:3).

I thank God daily that I live in a nation where I have liberty to serve Him as His word commands. I pray that one day all nations will enjoy the same freedom, if the Lord wills. But I harbor no illusion that my beloved country is “under God.” Be certain of this: God is not fooled either (Galatians 6:7). Until we are converted, it matters little what — or whether — we pledge. All our outrage could be better directed.