Yet Another Attack On “Under God”

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress in 1942.  The words “under God” were added 12-years later, and it is an interesting story how that happened.

 

One Sunday morning early in 1954, President Dwight ‘Ike’ Eisenhower attended services at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church a few blocks from the White House.  There he heard the Reverend Dr. George MacPherson Docherty give a stirring sermon calling for the addition of the words “under God” to the Pledge.  Docherty said that there was nothing in the Pledge that differentiated Americans from Russians. Russian school children, he argued, could recite a similar pledge to their country.

 

This prompted Ike to reflect on what made Americans different from their Soviet enemies – what set America apart.  Of course, it is that we believe our liberty comes from God.

 

The next day, Eisenhower initiated the process of adding “under God” to the Pledge.  Soon after, Rep. Charles Oakman introduced a bill to add the words and the law passed overwhelmingly in both houses of Congress and was signed by the president.

 

Interestingly, given the current attacks on religious liberty and the overall trend toward restraining religious speech, it’s questionable that such a bill would pass today … especially in Harry Reid’s Senate.

 

The courts have gone back and forth about the constitutionality of the daily schoolroom ritual.  In 2002, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declared the words to be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. Then, in 2010, the same court ruled that the phrase could be left in because it invokes not religious faith but “our founders’ political philosophy that a power greater than the government gives the people their inalienable rights.”

 

Now “under God” has been targeted again.  A national humanist group is suing a New Jersey school district on behalf of a family that believes the words “under God” discriminate against atheist children.  The American Humanist Association claims that phrase “marginalizes atheist and humanist kids as something less than ideal patriots.”  This even though state law allows children to opt out of reciting the pledge.

 

There’s no telling how this latest fight will turn out.  But this we know: The humanists won’t be happy until all recognition of God is banished from the public square.  Ronald Reagan used to say that if we ever forget that we are “one nation under God then we will be a nation gone under.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel