Taking “God” Out Of The Pledge Doesn’t Go Far Enough

By James Donahue

Sept. 20, 2005

A ruling last week by a U. S. District Judge that the reference to “God” in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag violates the rights of children of atheist families seems certain to send the case before the Supreme Court.

This battle, launched by Michael Newdow, has been a bone of contention among atheists ever since the words “under God” were inserted in the pledge by Congress in 1954. That change, which alters a patriotic oath to include a public prayer, was brought about by a campaign by the Knights of Columbus.

Strangely, the author of the pledge, Francis Bellamy, was a Baptist minister and a confirmed Christian Socialist in his political views. It was because of his political standing that Bellamy was pressured into leaving the church because of his socialist sermons.

Consequently, Bellamy went to work in 1891 for The Youth’s Companion, a leading family magazine in that day, where he published the pledge the following year. Bellamy also served as chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education in the National Education Association, and used his influence to have the pledge recited by school children as part of a quadricentennial celebration for Columbus Day in 1892.

In this way, Bellamy manipulated the public to accept the pledge as a patriotic statement of an oath to the flag. It has become a part of a dogma regulating public behavior ever since.

While the Christian-influenced media is quick to attack Newdow’s battle to have the words “under God” removed from the pledge, it does not erase the fact that the man is quite right. Forcing school children to declare a pledge not only to a national flag, but to declare a belief that this flag flies for a nation that stands “under God,” is a violation of the rights of a free people.

That Bellamy used his influence in high places to force the children of his day to recite this pledge and thus become brainwashed to believe its words, even though they were a lie, also was a violation of human rights.

Those children grew up accepting the pledge as a truth, and lived to allow their children and grandchildren to stand by their school desks each day, gazing at a U. S. flag and reciting this same oath of allegiance.

It was the same kind of brainwashing Hitler used on the children of Germany in the early 1930s. Those children pledged an allegiance to Hitler and grew up thinking of him as a god figure and themselves a super race of humans. They willingly joined the Nazi party and many went on to become SS Troops.

While there is nothing wrong with patriotism, and teaching our children a love and respect for their country, there is something very wrong with teaching falsehoods. The pledge glorifies a nation that was envisioned by our founders, but it does not reflect what America has become.

Had we followed the plan and truly developed the United States government as a republic, we might have existed for a much longer time than we seem destined for now. The only known republic in history was the Roman Empire, which lasted for about a thousand years. Its downfall came after Christianity filtered its way into government and things got corrupted.

The same thing is happening today in America, only some 200 years after our nation was founded.

President George W. Bush never uses the word “republic” when he speaks of government. He has made it clear that we are a democracy. His goal is to bring kingdoms and dictatorships throughout the Middle East and elsewhere into democratic chaos.

In effect, Iraq has become a democracy. It appears that our efforts in Iraq have been a complete failure because the nation now is living under civil strife and chaos. But when you think about it, this is how democracy works. A democracy simply means that the masses rule. The people fight among themselves until the strongest leader gets to be a brief “king of the mountain.” But little is accomplished.

The U. S. government has become a reflection of the masses in America. Our president reflects the mental state of the majority. This is why he is reflected as a monkey in a suit by the cartoonists. He is exactly that.

Thus when we say we pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States, and to the republic for which it stands, we are not speaking the truth.

It is also untrue when we say that we are “one nation,” because we are now a mixture of many nations and tongues, all of us existing in various ethnic groups and struggling to have our voice heard amid the din created by the democratic government we have turned ourselves into.

When we add that we enjoy “liberty and justice for all,” we are uttering yet another lie. Justice in America belongs to only those that can afford to buy it. Everybody else belongs to the downtrodden masses that serve the wealthy.

Consequently, the word liberty also is a false claim for most of us. It doesn’t exist either.

This is why I refuse to recite the pledge. I strongly support any effort to strike down any part of that statement. If we cannot be the nation described in that sentence, I believe it should be erased from our text and our memory. We have no right to be saying it.