A Brief History of the Pledge

Submitted by kebernet on Fri, 05/03/2002 - 14:32

Tagged:

Politics

This story at AlterNet discusses the history of the Pledge of Allegiance. Interesting points in my mind:

The first pledge was written in 1892. The central idea being "Liberty and Justice for All" -- something that survives to this day.
The "under God" bit wasnt added until 1954. The logic being Communists would not want to say it because they were all atheists.

Doesn't it seem with all the discussion I have heard in my life about the pledge and the separation of church and state we should just take that bit out? It is a product of a bygone paranoid government, a bygone Cold War, and for those of us who are democratically centered a/poly-theists it still bothersome...

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Re: A Brief History of the Pledge

Submitted by atrox (not verified) on Sun, 05/05/2002 - 06:10.

Thats amazing man, I had no idea that the govt would do stuff like alter the pledge 60 years after written, for any reason. Crazy. I agree, in this church and state sep country, why are we proclaiming "under god" in church and why is it on our money, stated in courts, etc? Not anything against God, but since we purport "freedom of religion" how we can say "god?" What about gods, what about othe beliefs that dont include god, etc. Maybe the religion of some does not include a main deity known as "god." NOT mentioning God seems to offend some, but I never understand how not mentioning it makes it bad? Is this God so self centered and self indulgent that he MUST have our validation at every official state event? Why would that even matter to a God? The point is, it doesnt, it only matters to people, God or not. Also, while I am on this God thing. I am really really tired of all the "miracle" crap at the World Trade Center. That was an enormous tradgedy and God was nowhere around. People that find 2 beams left standing that form a cross and claim thats Gods sign, thats a "miracle" are full of crap. If God was so involved that he took 2 pieces of metal and formed them into a cross while the building were falling, why didnt he just cause the planes to stall out on the runway? Etc, etc, miracle my ass, compeltely the opposite of miracle. (Also, to quote attributes on totsp right now, you have to use single quotes. havent had a chance to fix it, the system auto escapes everything EXCEPT quotes inside html tags, ie attributes, those need singles.)

Re: A Brief History of the Pledge

Submitted by jheimann (not verified) on Mon, 05/06/2002 - 11:11.

Heh, I love little bits of trivia like this. It seems the ultra-right wing conservatives who don't know their butt from a bean-pole love to argue how this country was founded by Christians blah blah blah. "Just look at the Pledge of Allegiance and our currency which says In God We Trust blah blah blah". Well, Here's a little snippet about how In God We Trust replaced the much better E Pluribus Unum (from Madalyn O'Hair): "In 1861, the Reverend M.R. Watkinson persuaded the secretary of the Treasury to try to introduce 'In God We Trust' as a motto on the coins of the land, arguing on the theological premise that in a Judeo-Christian nation, 'There is but one God.' Congress, then beginning to be responsive to the religious community and the votes that it was presumed to control, passed the Coinage Act of April 22, 1864, which designated that 'In God We Trust' be put on coins 'when and where sufficient space in the balance of the design' would permit it." These people don't even realize that a majority of the Founding Fathers were Deists, not Christians, and that Jefferson himself, if not completely atheistic or agnostic, blamed Christianity and other religions of the sort for most of the world's problem. (Jefferson suggested E Pluribus Unum first). I just love throwing a monkey wrench into my Southern Baptist friends' world view!

Re: A Brief History of the Pledge

Submitted by atrox (not verified) on Wed, 05/08/2002 - 20:32.

amen brother. its pathetic. take thomas paine, one of "founding fathers" in every right and a great statesmen and patriot. read "common sense", he LITERALLY calls religion the biggest scam ever perpetrated on mankind and the christians as the best purveyors of that scam. and, the worst part in my view, is that all of this crap is irrelevant to matters of state. when is say, why in the hell does it say "in god we trust" on our money and why are the "ten commandments" on courtroom walls, etc, i am not attacking anyones religion. i am not saying its wrong, im not saying its bad, im not saying buddha is better than god, i am not saying there is no god, i am not saying bart simpson should be on the money, i am saying its frickin money, why is god on it? its totally stupid to even discuss and yet people get totally bent. money is public, it is printed and controlled by the state, that means by definition (constitution) it should not even remotely concern religion. same with the pledge at public state run schools. now, when i come to your church, or your house and tell you not to talk about god, then get pissed, but in matters of state its just not an issue, god doesnt belong there.