To what are those reciting The Pledge pledging allegiance? Despite (or because of) Jerry Falwell’s yammering about “religious references indicate the true chronicle of our nation,” a brief look at The Pledge’s history is in order.

Dr. John W. Baer provides “A Short History” of The Pledge of Allegiance:

Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist. In his Pledge, he is expressing the ideas of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, author of the American socialist utopian novels, Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897).

 

Francis Bellamy in his sermons and lectures and Edward Bellamy in his novels and articles described in detail how the middle class could create a planned economy with political, social and economic equality for all. The government would run a peace time economy similar to our present military industrial complex.

What was the original pledge Bellamy wrote?

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

This secular pledge to a secular nation was published before it was actually used in an 1892 public school quadricentennial celebration of Columbus Day. As Dr. Baer noted, Bellamy “considered placing the word, ‘equality,’ in his Pledge, but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans.”

Why aren’t those groups incensed by the recent 9th Circuit Court’s ruling acknowledging that bit of history? Could it be because they are the ones currently arguing so vehemently against “equality” for gay and lesbian Americans?

One of the most obsessively vehement of those supposedly faith-based groups is the Traditional Values Coalition, founded and chaired by Rev. Lou Sheldon. TVC’s executive director is Sheldon’s daughter Andrea Lafferty, a former Reagan administration official. Her husband James is a TVC “consultant.” He was a former press secretary for Tom DeLay.

By mid-morning on September 15, 2005, the Traditional Values Coalition was already using The Pledge controversy as a way to gather financial pledges for their organization and it campaigns against the word and concept Bellamy wanted to add to the original Pledge: “equality.” (Not surprisingly, TVC also has a problem with an African American woman by the name of Rosa Parks.)

So who added the words “under God,” and when were they added? Congress did, in 1954, after an intense lobbying campaign by the Knights of Columbus (one of the participants in the current litigation). As Dr. Baer noted, “The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.” But there’s more to it than that. 

What does the phrase “under God” actually mean? According to the eleventh edition (2003) of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, the word “under” can be used as an adjective, an adverb, or a preposition. In The Pledge, it’s most likely intended as a preposition, one of the definitions for which is “subject to the authority, control, guidance, or instruction of.”

Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that The Pledge’s reference to one nation “under God” violated school children’s right to be “free from a coercive requirement to affirm God.” He was correct, linguistically and morally, especially since so many “religious leaders” recently claimed hurricane Katrina was that same “God’s” wrath purposely guided and intended to destroy New Orleans and kill hundreds of people – and untold thousands of totally innocent animals – because of alleged “sins.” Everyone should be free from such a malicious “God” and its “religion.”

If The Pledge of Allegiance is to the secular republic called the United States, there is absolutely no reason to mention the “God” of certain religions while ignoring other religions’ concepts of Divinity, especially in multicultural twenty-first century America. If the Pledge is to a theocratic state – the Christian one the Religious Right so adamantly advocates – then “under God” is appropriate. Similarly, in a secular nation “with liberty and justice for all” has meaning. In a theocratic state, those words not only lack meaning, they’re subversive.