The most obvious issue with this phrase is that it is irrelevant for today’s approximately 1 in 5 Americans who don’t believe in a “God”. He declared that this change would “strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war”. The use of “God” was added by Eisenhower in the 1950s during the Red Scare, a period of anti-Communist frenzy. First off, it proclaims that our country is “one nation under God”. To start, it’s important to understand exactly what the pledge is saying. With today’s backdrop of declining patriotism and growing criticisms of our country’s unjust institutions, the pledge seems to symbolize the kind of idealist nationalism that grants these systems their power. Believed to be written in the 1890s by Francis Bellamy, a privileged white Christian socialist, the pledge has always been disconnected from the reality of many citizens. But why? Should we? This 130-year-old sentence has been a familiar component in schools around our country, but the phrase has had significant issues since its origin. “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.” Words we all likely know by heart.
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