Hedge your pledge: Add God

When a second-grade kid kneels during the Pledge of Allegiance, you know you’ve got a problem. The protester could grow up to be a football player. But objection to the pledge is not new. It essentially began in 1954. President Eisenhower guided “under God” into the secular pledge with bipartisan support.

After I recently wrote about Roe v. Wade being wiped off the books, a reader sent a note about the pledge and those two words that have bothered her since she was in a parochial elementary school. She pledged allegiance to the United States she loved, but “under God,” whom she also loved, seemed out of place in a purely patriotic declaration. She didn’t verbalize her doubts to her teachers, but she had the doubting feeling. She was not irreligious. Neither was the man who wrote the original pledge without “under God.”

In 1892, Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, wrote it. It was all about country, not his ministry. It was amended during his lifetime without adding God when it could have been if he thought it should have been. When God arrived in 1954, one ardent opponent was Bellamy’s daughter. She was out of her league of influence. The Cold War was on. Joe McCarthy was yapping wild. (Joe McCarthy, by the way, is the only drunk I’ve seen fall up some stairs.)

In the Cold War, the pledge was a verbal missile aimed at the godless Soviet Union with a godless dictator, Joe Stalin. He didn’t notice. The change wasn’t by popular demand, but originally from the Knights of Columbus which urged the addition of “under God.” Other denominations joined in, although Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mennonites refused to repeat the pledge. Senators and Congressmen from the most liberal to the most conservative said “Aye.”

It was an empty get-reelected gesture and had no visible impact on the Soviets. But God stayed put. One of the most shared memories we all have is pledging allegiance to the flag and God in elementary school. Today, every school day morning about 36 million little people will recite the Pledge of Allegiance with hand over heart, standing reasonably still.

The Pledge is a tradition that began in 1892 and remained with only minor additions until 1954. Earlier, the words, "of the United States of America" were added to “the flag.” That made things more specific but did not change its tone or secular integrity.

Then, a religious order joined in. Some called it “inspiration,” but many didn’t then and many still don’t. It was a mystery for many of us. It wasn’t easy for the Supreme Court either. The Court found it unconstitutional, but a couple years later changed its finding. So, this is the pledge and a constitutional one:

“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.

My reader and I would feel patriotic and devoted to our nation if God were gone from the pledge. I think Bellamy would, too. And probably a number of elementary school kids.

I am going to try to find another subject after I do one on church and state conflicting views on sorghum.

Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary.