As we approach Flag Day, Tuesday, there are those in our nation who would have “under God” removed from our pledge of allegiance.
True, it was added to the original pledge.
For good reason.
It might be helpful to reflect on a speech given in February 1954, which reportedly was instrumental in motivating President Dwight D. Eisenhower to sign into law a resolution adding those two words on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.
The speech was actually a sermon given on Feb. 7, 1954, for the Lincoln Day Observance at the New York Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. Eisenhower and his wife were in attendance as Rev. George M. Docherty delivered his message, “Under God.”
Though having recited the pledge daily for 13 years of public school in Snyder, in Western New York, though holding history and law degrees, I was unfamiliar with that sermon or its implications until I heard Rabbi Daniel Lapin speak in Wharton, Texas, a few years ago, read his book “America’s Real War” and pursued a little further research.
A pledge to the flag had been recited in various forums since 1892, but in 1945 was officially designated by Congress as the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Slight changes were made to Francis Bellamy’s original version during those years, and between 1951 and 1954 the Knights of Columbus encouraged Congress and the White House to add the words “under God” to the pledge.
Then on Feb. 7, 1954, Eisenhower heard Docherty’s sermon, including commentary on the “American way of life.” After mentioning various American traits such as “drinking Coca Cola” or “shopping in Sears, Roebuck” or “losing heart and hat on a roller coaster” or witnessing a presidential inauguration, Docherty acknowledged there was (and I might add, still is) something deeper than that — some fundamentals.
He stressed, “These fundamental concepts of life had been given to the world from Sinai, where the moral law was graven upon tables of stone, symbolizing universal application to all men; and they came from the New Testament, where they heard in the words of Jesus of Nazareth the living Word of God for the world.”
He then explained his own epiphany following the return of his children from school one day. “Almost casually, I asked what happened at school when they arrived there in the morning. They described to me, in great detail and with strange solemnity, the ritual of the salute to the flag. The children turn to the flag, and with their hand across their heart, they repeat the words: ‘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.’”
While his children were proud of the pledge, it caused their dad some consternation. Reflecting soberly on each word, “I came to a strange conclusion. There was something missing in this pledge, and that which was missing was the characteristic and definitive factor in the American way of life.”
And then Docherty dropped what to me was a bombshell. He stated, “(I)n fact, I could hear little Muscovites repeat a similar pledge to their hammer-and-sickle flag in Moscow with equal solemnity, for Russia is also a republic that claims to have overthrown the tyranny of kingship.”
He further added that what was missing at that time in the pledge was “(t)he one fundamental concept that completely and ultimately separates Communist Russia from the democratic institutions of this country. … Once ‘under God,’ then we can define what we mean by ‘liberty and justice for all.’ To omit the words ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance is to omit the definitive character of the American way of life.”
While some secularists/atheists, such as Michael Newdow, are fighting stridently to remove those two words from the pledge, they have failed so far on legal grounds and would do well to heed even fellow secularists reflecting on history. Secularist John D. Steinrucken opened his March 25, 2010 article in American Thinker, “Rational thought may provide better answers to many of life’s riddles than does faith alone. However, it is rational to conclude that religious faith has made possible the advancement of Western civilization. That is, the glue that has held Western civilization together over the centuries is the Judeo-Christian tradition.”
He added, “(d)o we secularists not benefit out of all proportion from a morally responsible society? An orderly society is dependent on a generally accepted morality. There can be no such morality without religion.”
Secular humanists Will and Ariel Durant, historians and prolific writers (including the 11-volume “The Story of Civilization”) agree. In their book “The Lessons of History,” they acknowledge, “There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion.”
As Docherty went on to point out in his sermon, one nation under God does not limit the United States to one nation under a particular denomination or a particular religion. But it does distinctively set the record straight that we are a nation under God — and a higher rule of law — not a nation in which the state or any man is supreme.
Peter Johnston, a freelance writer and speaker, writes about law, liberty and public policy. He is a native of New York state and a graduate of Cornell University, Oak Brook College of Law and Government Policy and Chuck Colson’s one-year Biblical worldview mentoring program sponsored by the Wilberforce Forum. He lives in Texas.
