“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.”
There are two words in there that shouldn’t be in there, can you spot them? Answer: under God.
In a pure poetic sense, they don’t fit. They sound completely mashed in there. When people say “one nation under God / indivisible,” they speed through the line as fast as possible and it doesn’t fit the meter. Everything else is said slow and fits rhythmically. It also sounds weird that the one word indivisible is set off separately from that long line. When said the other way “one nation / under God / indivisible” it still sounds tacked in there. It’s an exact syllabic repetition. It sounds extra and uneeded. You might as well tack in 100 three-syllable lines. Say it yourself without the “under God” and see how much better it flows.
More importantly, the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional with those lines in there. It forces one to admit to a faith in order to pledge allegiance to this country. It establishes a fact that there is a god. Any profession of faith in a god is a religious statement. No matter which way you look at it, god equals religion. Therefore, the Pledge of Allegiance specifically violates the establishment clause of the first amendment. It also violates the free exercise clause. I’ve heard that it doesn’t because it’s not specific to one religion. If it wasn’t specific to the Christian God, it would say “under a god” not “under God.” The capital letter makes it a proper noun, or a name, specifically, the name of the Christian God.
Some may say, I’m not forced to say the pledge, so I shouldn’t complain. It doesn’t matter because it’s the country’s pledge, not just something I recite. Besides, I want to recite the pledge. It’s not fair that I should have to say I believe in a god to profess allegiance to my country when I don’t believe in a god.
I want “under God” specifically removed from the pledge because it wasn’t in there before. It was added in for the purpose of making children profess faith in the Christian God. (Don’t believe me, look up what the president said when signing it in to effect.) Taking out religious references from sources that originally contained religion would be defacing art. Read the Coda from Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451. However, adding religious references to sources that don’t contain them defaces art just as much as the other way around. What if the word God were inserted all over the Constitution?
Adding “under God” to the pledge ruined the poetry, and made it unconstitutional. The meaning of each word in the pledge carries great weight, and I don’t wish for the United States to deface it with proselytization.
[11/06/03 – EDIT: I have responded to the one comment for this entry.]
I think that “under God” should not be taken out of the pledge of allegiance because our nation was FOUNDED UNDER GOD. The Pilgrims and Seperatists came to America to escape religious persucution. No one is forced to believe in the Christian God, but just because this is now and that was then doesn’t mean that just because our nation has many varieties of people we should forget why America was founded.
As for public schools, I don’t get why in the world you are not allowed to teach to teach Christianity when you can in fact teach evolution. When public schools were founded, the main subject that was taught was the Bible. Now you can’t even tell people about God. That is insane!!!
I think “under God” shoud be optional. I did some research and found out that over %86.9 people in America believe in a God. There for taking it out would leave 86.9% of the people disappointed not being able to claim there faith for their country. If you don’t believe in God don’t say it!!! You have the right of freedom of speech!!!
Under God should NOT be taken out of the Pledge. It’s just wrong and everyone knows it. We are dismissing a true and powerful God that sent his son to DIE for us so that we could go to heaven if we just asked Him! Taking Under God out is a big mistake
I feel that this entire article is a total waste of time. Whether YOU want to admit it or not, there is a God and the least we could do to thank Him for what he has done is to give him credit by putting his name in the pledge of allegiance. I also must disagree with you that it sounds “better” without the “under God” part. It makes no sense. Do us all a favor and get over it. Find more important things to argue about.
First of all an agnoiologist needs to study you because what you said is stupid. I respect that some people have different beliefs than I do, but you don’t even back up why God should be taken out of anything. God is everything and one day every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord.