This article was inspired by another blog. The author of that blog wrote eloquently about the Pledge of Allegiance, but the blog overlooked some key points. Whether this was a conscious decision or just an oversight I do not know. The author breaks the Pledge down both historically and definitionally.
The Pledge was written by a Baptist preacher (more about this later) for a magazine, The Youth’s Companion in 1892. It was written to promote the magazine’s sale of flags to schools.
The original Pledge read:
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
It is at this point I have to disagree with the blogger about Francis Bellamy’s (1855-1931) intent. They said the pledge was written to be used by citizens of any country, except it couldn’t have been because not every country is a republic.
Over the years the wording has changed. The phrase “my Flag” was changed to “the Flag” in 1923. In 1954 Congress at the bequest of President Eisenhower added the words “under God”. President Eisenhower did this in response to the godless communist menace.
4 US Code § 4, commonly called the Flag Code now reads:
The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: “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.”, should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. When not in uniform men should remove any non-religious headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Persons in uniform should remain silent, face the flag, and render the military salute. Members of the Armed Forces not in uniform and veterans may render the military salute in the manner provided for persons in uniform.
Now back to the original author, Francis Bellamy, He called himself a Christian Socialist. His repeated utterances calling Jesus a socialist got him removed from his pulpit. He allegedly despised capitalism, yet wrote the pledge to promote a commercial organization’s sale of flags.
I believe the blogger wrote the article in order to propagate the viewpoint that the United States must be inclusive and accept all races, religions, genders, and sexual deviants. Their belief appears to be that the pledge is a statement that over rides the Constitution. Since the Pledge was written by a socialist, America should be a socialist nation. I am truly flabbergasted by this reasoning that lacks any semblance to logical thinking.
In defining the words indivisible, liberty, and justice the blogger adds their own comments some of which I have to agree with i.e. your liberty stops where mine begins. Their aside about indivisible bothers me because this is where they say the population is supposed to be indivisible (and inclusive). My belief is that the phrase indivisible means not that the population must accept the beliefs of each other but that the population should be united in defense and preservation of the Republic.
The blogger in trying to demonstrate that they are as patriot if not more so than people with whom they disagree politically. I found this strange since the blogger is left of center on the political scale, yet in their arguments they adopt the beliefs held by the right. They hold up the tenets of Bellamy yet overlook his own writing:
“[a] democracy like ours cannot afford to throw itself open to the world where every man is a lawmaker, every dull-witted or fanatical immigrant admitted to our citizenship is a bane to the commonwealth.”
“Where all classes of society merge insensibly into one another every alien immigrant of inferior race may bring corruption to the stock. There are races more or less akin to our own whom we may admit freely and get nothing but advantage by the infusion of their wholesome blood. But there are other races, which we cannot assimilate without lowering our racial standard, which we should be as sacred to us as the sanctity of our homes.”
It would seem inclusiveness was not part of Bellamy’s socialist beliefs.
If one wants to dissect the Pledge of Allegiance I recommend Red Skelton’s monologue on the subject.
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