“One nation under God.” My, how these four words in The Pledge of Allegiance have stirred up controversy in recent years! The Pledge has become a sacred American ritual, one that used to be recited every morning at the beginning of the school day with “one nation under God” included.
Do you remember those days, standing in the classroom, hand over your heart, facing the flag and reciting the Pledge with classmates and teachers? Nowadays, you may be able to find it being recited in some schools, but not all. The court oscillates between hearing cases of those wanting to have it removed and those who seek to repeal or deny requests to remove the phrase. Atheists and other religions balk at the phrase, saying it’s a violation of the separation of church and state, and would be just as offensive by saying “One nation under Jesus, Vishnu, or no god.”
The reality is, this nation was founded with a reliance on God. Way back when, this was a Christian nation. A majority of us still believe that this is a nation under God and we pray for God to continue to have mercy on our nation and to give its leaders His wisdom. This doesn’t mean we discriminate against people who believe other things; it means we hold firmly to our foundation, our beliefs and the truths that made this country into what it is today.
Oddly enough, the controversial phrase "One Nation Under God" wasn't always in our pledge. It was added into the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, at the insistence of President Eisenhower, during the threat of Communism and the beginning years of the Cold War. Prior to 1954, the pledge read as:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
This was the second revision to the Pledge. The first revision was when the words “of the United States of America” were added to the Pledge in 1923 to make it applicable to our country. When Francis Bellamy wrote The Pledge of Allegiance in 1892, his original intention was that it would become a Pledge to be used by any nation in the world:
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
We like the current version better.
If you resonate with these four words as proudly as we do, Republican Coffee is pleased to share one of our new Americana designs with you: “One Nation Under God.”
(Information Sources: http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/27/us/judges-ban-pledge-of-allegiance-from-schools-citing-under-god.html?pagewanted=all)
