According to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, there is a bit of a brouhaha over God in the House of Representatives:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today defended the Architect of the Capitol's refusal to permit use of the word "God" on official certificates enclosed with flags flown over the U.S. Capitol.I was trying to figure out how "God" would come up in an authentication certificate for a Capitol-flown flag, so I read on...
She [Pelosi] said the official policy is to send a certificate that lists nothing beyond the date the flag flew over the Capitol and the name of its recipient. She said that members of Congress who request flags on behalf of constituents can "add whatever they wish" to the certificates, "whether it is a political statement or a religious statement."
Just a few months ago Soldiers' Angels/Valour-IT received a flag and certificate from the same Architect of the Capitol and it included far more than just the date and name...
Personally, I think most of the people involved in complaining about leaving God out of a comment on the certificate are being a bit opportunistic, but something is not quite right here. If requesting Members can add "whatever they wish," then surely the Member who requested that flag for the family could've added the "God phrase." But perhaps Pelosi is referring to a hand-written additional comment. If so, that makes her statement about official policy incorrect, as the additional comments on the SA/V-IT flag were obviously not added later by anyone...Strange.
