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Originally Posted by PantyFanatic
I was taught the same as Wyndhy.
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actually, i was taught the under god part as well (jeez pf...i'm only 34
) but when i decided i was agnostic (thanks to me) and that it was antithesis to the philosophy of our nation (thanks to the nuances american govenment presented middle-school style) i chose to leave it out myself. they say under god at my daughter’s school too, lil. she is still deciding if she is a believer and says it the way the rest of the class does...because it's what the rest of the clss does, says she.
some interesting and useless info on the subject of the pledge:
written in 18*mumblemumble* by frank bellamy (a baptist minister forced to stop serving his church after sermonizing on increasingly socialist topics, and who later left his church because he was discouraged and sickened by the increasing bigotry) it originally went as follows: i pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. he was gonna use “equality” as well, but as chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education in the NEA, he was hip to the fact that state superintendents were against equality for blacks and women. according to bellamy, the key ideas were indivisible, which was supposed to recollect the civil war and the triumph of a federal union (indivisible is the same word webster and lincoln used to repeat in their great speeches and he wanted to use it), and liberty and justice for all, which was supposed to recall our balance between equality and individual freedom, justice being that balance. it was first published in a magazine called “the youth’s companion.” and as chairman of that committee for the NEA, he prepared the programs for the public schools and structured just such a program around a flag raising, a flag salute, and his pledge of allegiance (can you say self promotion?
). by the 1920’s, reciting the pledge had become a ritual in most public schools.
the pledge did not include the phrases “of the united states of america” or “under god.” “of the united states” was added by the national flag conference (a joint group made up of members from the american legion and the daughters of the revolution) in 19*mublemumble* (20’s maybeish, that would make sense because of it’s increasing usage) ‘cause they were worried that the millions of new immigrants would take the phrase “my flag” as meaning the immagrants could remain patriotic and loyal to their native nations, so “my flag” became “the flag of the united states.” “of america” was added later…added insurance, i suppose, against anyone from that
other united states.
bellamy protested this change but was ignored.
in the1950s - that feel-good, commie stalking, atheist cursing, power of positive thinking, ozzie and harriet normalcy, you-shall-perish-in-a-nuclear-holocaust-unless-you-embrace-jesus era - the now so-called “new religiosity” overran washington. they had these pissing contests to out-do each other and prove their piety. eisenhower started the prayer breakfast. congress created a prayer room in the capitol and (with ike’s support) added the words in god we trust on all paper money. then it made those same four words the nation's official motto, replacing e pluribus unum. amendments were introduced to state that americans obeyed “the authority and law of jesus christ.”
then, a reverend of the presbyterian church - a man by the name of docherty - gave a sermon about how the pledge could be about any country…citing moscovites in particular, and how he could picture them saluting their hammer and sickle … conveniently forgetting that liberty and justice for all wasn’t exactly one of the ussr’s mottoes. he strongly urged the inclusion of “under god” in the pledge to denote what
he felt was special about the good ol' US of A. legend has it that eisenhower (already keen on the idea) happened to be there. another catalyst was the knights of columbus who adopted “under god” for use in their own meetings, and, according to history, bombarded congressmen with calls for the rest of us to do the same.
the grand legislative history of the ensuing act introduced in 19*mumblemumble* stated the idea that we would “acknowledge the dependence of our people and our government upon the creator, denying the atheistic and materialistic concept of communism.” eisenhower signed the bill on flag day and announced that “millions of our schoolchildren will daily proclaim the dedication of our nation and our people to the almighty.” the fact that our nation was founded, constitutionally and philosophically speaking, under the exact opposite ideals seemed to entirely escape the president, congress, and most of the american public. not so much the supreme court, but their rulings of it being unconstitutional have not done much in the way of eliminating any of the christian dogma that was ingrained into us during those times.
whoops…went off a bit there.
aaaaanyway, more possible changes on the horizon… pro-life advocates have lobbied for this: 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, born and unborn. and a few liberals have revised it slightly (summoning bellamy’s original thoughts): i pledge allegiance to my flag, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with equality, liberty and justice for all.