Under God

Most Mazurlanders grew up reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with the words "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all." Most Americans don't recall that at one time, the Pledge did not contain the words "under God". The Pledge was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister and Christian socialist. It was quickly adopted as a popular tool of patriotic indoctrination for the young, and by 1940 the Supreme Court ruled that youngsters, including Jehovah's Witnesses, who considered such pledges idolatrous, could be compelled to recite it.

For many years, the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's benevolent organization, had agitated to have the words "under God" added to the Pledge. Their efforts went nowhere until Rev. George M. Docherty, a Presbyterian minister and immigrant from Scotland, got behind the effort. Docherty met with success after preaching a sermon on the subject on an occasion when President Dwight Eisenhower was in the congregation. From the pulpit that morning, he said the pledge was missing "the characteristic and definitive factor in the American way of life. Indeed, apart from the mention of the phrase 'the United States of America,' it could be the pledge of any Republic. In fact, I could hear little Muscovites repeat a similar pledge to their hammer and sickle flag in Moscow with equal solemnity." The words "under God" were added to the Pledge by an act of Congress on Flag Day in 1954.

I am of two minds about such innovations and intrusions. On the one hand, we do, after all, live in a secular Republic. And I consider it prideful to declare that God is always backing our actions, and in any case silly, even foolish to claim the assent of all in regard to the machinations of the Almighty. But I also think that our Constitution, while guaranteeing freedom of religion, was not intended to mandate freedom from religion. It is just as foolish to ignore the religious bases of our ethics, laws, and the religious motivations of our founders. And don't we fall just as far from the ideals unity, liberty, and justice as we do from subjection to the will of God? They are our aspirations, not accomplished facts.

Things have changed a good deal since the 50s. Since the 60s, there has been growing insistence that people should be able to decline to say the Pledge for any number of reasons. And now, children of atheists can opt out of the Pledge.

One man has seen the whole trajectory of the presence of God in the Pledge. The Rev. George Docherty died on Thanksgiving Day at the age of 97. For some years, the Rev. Docherty had lived in Alexandria, Pennsylvania, a small town about 25 miles from where I live. 

I am very much in favor of groups adding their hopes and convictions to the Pledge. The Knights of Columbus were behind the last innovation that resulted in a change to the Pledge. The Knights are currently very active in the Pro-Life cause. I am a member of the Knights. Before each meeting, we recite the Pledge. Our version ends "...with Liberty and Justice for all, the born and the unborn." A clumsy addition, perhaps. It would never fly as the National Pledge. But it's our aspiration.