It becomes easy to demand change for something when we do
not understand its origin or why it came into being. After every mass shooting
we see the knee jerk reaction to ban guns and do away with the Second Amendment
to our Constitution. No one needs military styled weapons for hunting, home
defense, or recreation. In that regard they would be absolutely correct. But
the Second Amendment does not protect weapons used for hunting, home defense,
or recreation. The Second Amendment protects the firearms used by the ordinary
citizen to defend against our God given rights from being abused or taken away
by a tyrannical government. That purpose has not changed and when Government
tries to infringe upon that right they have broken the pact they made with the
people and by definition have become tyrannical.
We see a like argument going on with our Pledge of Allegiance
to this country. Since 1954 atheists have fought the battle to remove the words
“under God” from the Pledge arguing
everything from inclusivity to the separation of church and state. Memes abound
on social media encouraging people to return to the pledge as it was originally
written before “under God” was added to it. It becomes easy to demand change to
something when we do not know its origin. The pledge we say today has actually been
changed many times. Atheists would never want to go back to the pledge as it
was originally written.
The original Pledge of Allegiance, now known as the Old Pledge
was created by Colonel George Balch
and was;
We give our heads and hearts to God and our country; one country, one
language, one flag!
It was later
changed to the “formula of allegiance” and
was recited as;
I pledge allegiance to my flag, and the
republic for which it stands. I pledge my head and my heart to God and my
country. One country, one language and one flag[
Along came
Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister and Christian socialist. Bellamy did not
like Balch’s pledge believing it was too juvenile and lacking dignity. He
authored his pledge in 1892 and it read;
I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the
Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all.
This became known
as the “New Pledge”. Notice, there is no mention to God in this version. There
is also no mention to the United States of America either. “My flag” was
changed to “The Flag of the United States” in 1923. It wasn’t until 1942 that
the Pledge of Allegiance was officially
recognized by Congress as our pledge.
In 1948 Louis
Albert Brown initiated the addition of the words “under God” to be added to the pledge. President Lincoln had
included these words in his Gettysburg address. In 1951 the Knights of Columbus
also began to include these words when they recited the pledge. They began to
petition the government to officially include these words into our National
Pledge.
In 1954 President
Eisenhower urged Congress to make the change in response to the growing
Communist threat in that day. Congress did and “under God” has been in our pledge ever since.
It begs the
question; are we still one nation under God? We have done everything we can to
remove God from the public square. Children can’t pray in schools anymore. It
is becoming harder to find a graduation ceremony with a blessing in it. Church
attendance is in a steady decline and lines outside a confessional are short to
nonexistent. For far too many people the only time the name of God is involved
is at that magical moment in a place designed for slumber. We have gone from
having a personal relationship with God to having a private relationship with
him to having a long distance relationship where we send him a card at
Christmas. Has God become irrelevant?
You could
question if we are still one nation. This country has not been this far divided
since the Civil War. Politics, abortion, religion, gun rights, global warming,
all sources of the great divide. Red state, blue state, conservative, liberal.
Everything we do separates us from our brother. Neither side is completely right
and neither side is completely wrong but neither side is willing to work with
the other for the real common good. Is man-made, man controllable, global
warming a real thing? Probably not but drinking and breathing toxins are no
good for anyone either. We all have a common interest in taking care of this
planet. We should be able to work together to do so, not divide and fight each
other.
A house divided
cannot stand. The devil loves division and does everything he can to get us to separate
ourselves. We either find a way to live together or we will die alone. God bless America, he shed his grace on thee.
How long do you think God will continue to shed his grace on America when we
have deported him from our borders and evicted him from our hearts?
Forty years I endured this generation.
They are a people whose hearts go astray and they do not know my ways. So I
swore in my anger they shall not enter into my rest. – Psalm 95
Our forty years
is about over.
