"ONE NATION, UNDER GOD?"

O.K., everyone get ready for a shock. I think the words "under God" should be taken out of the Pledge of Allegiance. That's right, Pro-American, flag wavin' H.C. thinks those words no longer belong in our oath. If you've read some of my relatively pro-Christian rants, you're probably thinking, (As a lot of people do.) that I'm being inconsistent in my thinking, or that I'm just trying to get a rise out of people. But let me assure you, I believe what I'm about to tell you and I absolutely think that the Pledge of Allegiance should be changed.

It's not that I don't recognize our Christian heritage, it's not that I don't understand the enormous contribution of Judeo-Christian philosophy to our laws or our morality, it's not that I believe in total Separation of Church and State, and not even that I've decided to turn sharply left and join my secular friends so somebody on this planet will finally agree with me 100% of the time. (As good as that sounds sometimes.) So, what is my reason for wanting to blackout the words "under God"? Nationalism, pride, and inclusion.

The history of the Pledge of Allegiance is not as long as you may think, in fact it's only been around for the second half of our nation's history. The Founding Fathers had no hand in it and as near as I could research, didn't even suggest it. It all started with a Baptist Minister named Francis Bellamy who liked the idea first suggested to him by his cousin Edward Bellamy of a pledge to help promote pride in the country. It was first published by Francis in "The Youth"s Companion", a well read magazine of the time, in September, 1891. But it wasn't until two years later when Bellamy introduced the Pledge to the American public during a celebration of Columbus Day in Boston that it started to take hold. Mr. Bellamy, as it turns out, was also a chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education in the National Education Association and incorporated his pledge into the public school system.

His original Pledge read 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 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. [ * 'to' added in October, 1892. ] Several changes were made to the original, replacing the word "my" with the word "the" and adding the words "of the United States of America" and finally "under God".

In 1954, a campaign by the Knights of Columbus to add the words "Under God" reached fruition. They had been campaigning hard for the last several years for the change based on the change they had made in their own reading of the Pledge at their meetings. President Eisenhower signed the change into law (Public Law relating to treatment of the flag) on Flag Day June 14, 1954, and our present-day Pledge of Allegiance was born.

So what's my problem? I have several.

First off, I believe that having a oath of allegiance to this country is a good idea and we should promote it. Unfortunately, over the past few decades I have noticed that it has become increasingly fashionable for people to trash this country. I'm fairly sure it started with the Vietnam protests and has continued to grow out of it. Add to that the rise in Liberalism and Secularism, both of which fundamentally dislike Capitalism and religion's role in the world, and you have the stage set for a great deal of our populace having no pride in the country they live in. Now, I know there are a lot of reasons, particularly in the past, that people feel our country has fallen far short of what we would have expected from our forefathers. But that is no reason not to have loyalty to the country in which you live in. In order to bring these people into the fold, we need to have a oath that they can say without reservation.

Second reason; the oath shouldn't be confused with a prayer. As much as I'm not a fan of removing Faith from any discussions, your asking people who do not believe in a God (over 8%) to swear allegiance to a country that exists "under God". Think of it this way Christians, would you swear allegiance to a country that had in it's oath "without God"? Of course not. Then there is the problem of incorporating it into our schools. With the present day arguments about Separation of Church and State, keeping those words makes the argument about church and State instead of pride and allegiance to your country where it should be. If you think it's a good idea to teach all of our children pride in this country so they will work hard to make it better, the words "under God" have to go.

Third reason; our country is becoming more and more diversified. We now have a significant portion of our country that believes in Buddhism, Confucianism, Atheism, Wicca, and many other religions that cannot affirm allegiance to a country which recognizes a Deity or even only one Deity. The words "under God" makes it hard for even the most patriotic among them to recite it.

What I'm talking about here is forming an oath that everyone can join in. If we are to survive as a country, we can not continue to find new ways to divide ourselves. You can, and should, have pride in the country you live in. I have heard many times from people who claim they will do nothing to support a country they have no pride in. I understand that pride, like respect, should be earned. But this country was born into the idea that it can change. Having no Nationalism makes our players weak and unmotivated to work toward betterment. I know it's a small part of the puzzle, but if our children at least start with the notion that they are committed to making this a better country, maybe more of them will work hard to make it so. If we continue to keep the words "under God" we may soon see a time when we have to remove the word "indivisible", and that would truly be a shame. H.C.