I am a God-fearing person. That means that I believe in God, not that I am afraid of him. I am concerned for our country when people choose to deny the hand of God in their lives and boast of their own strength and abilities.
I read about the little fiasco over at NBC yesterday. They televised the U.S. Open Golf Tournament, showing bits of Americana — soldiers and school children and the Pledge of Allegiance.
But they edited the pledge.
In all likelihood, they removed the “one nation under God, indivisible” phrase, purposely, though they have apologized. But it was done, and it was done twice in that little segment.

Although the pledge has been tampered with, or changed a few times, (along with the actual hand motions) — the message of NBC is that we don’t believe in God. And those of you who do, are silly.

For me, the pledge is really not that big of a thing, as a child, it had no meaning, a bunch of jumbled words, some that all ran together — forwhichitstands and invisble. The issue here is not so much tampering and editing, as it is the reason.

The Pledge of Allegiance is kind of a funny little story.
It was originally written in 1892 by a Methodist Minister, Christian Socialist named, Francis Bellamy.
Bellamy was a little too radical for the church and was fired (he wanted equality and fraternity.) He got a job with a periodical called The Youth’s Companion. This is when and where he wrote the pledge, in celebration of Columbus Day:

“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

He wrote it to keep immigrants and native-born Americans, in-line, so they would not become subversive. But he seemed to want equality for all, even women, which was controversial then — and the paper did not want him to include the “equality and fraternity” bit.

The President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison  made the pledge official for the flag celebration of Columbus Day in public schools — on October 12, 1892,

There was a hand sign that went with the pledge, called the Bellamy salute. It looked exactly like the salute that Hitler later adopted — hand out-stretched, palm down. But at the end of the pledge, you would turn your palm up.

1941 Flag ceremony with salute:

 

1915 Flag Ceremony with pledge and salute:

This is an 1899 photo — not sure why their hands are not out-stretched — maybe the teacher did not like her students hitting the kid in front of them:

In 1923, the words, “the Flag of The United States” replaced “my flag” ( also to help immigrants remember to what they were pledging.) Then in 1942 “of America” was added.(more clarification)

In 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the hand signal to hand-over the heart. (It was looking too much like the Nazi salute.)

In 1948, Louis A. Bowman, the chaplain of the Sons of The American Revolution, led that society in the pledge, adding the word, “under God.”  He claimed this came from the Gettysburg Address as said by Abraham Lincoln: “that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom.”
In 1951, The Knights of Columbus ( Catholic Fraternal Organization) began to use it and urged the President and Congress to adopt it nationally — but they did not.

In 1954, another clergy, Pastor George MacPerson Docherty of the NY Presbyterian Church, held a little service at the church where Abraham Lincoln had attended. President Eisenhower was there. The pastor said our nation was set apart from others by being “under God.” (this in contrast to communist countries, such as Russia, which were atheist)

This is Docherty with Pres. Eisenhower, who liked what he said, and signed The Pledge, with “under God” into law, June 14, 1954:
And that’s the little story.