Therefore, I can expect some flak on this one, because I’m going to rock the boat.

The original “Pledge of Allegiance” was written in 1892 by a socialist by the name of Francis Bellamy.  Bellamy was a Baptist minister, and styled himself a “Christian Socialist”, whatever that is.  He and his cousin, Edward Bellamy, were enamored with the doctrines of Karl Marx and the concept of “national socialism,” particularly as it was evolving at the time in Germany.  (Some of you may remember where that led.)

Bellamy, who was fired as a minister for his anti-Christian and socialist views, wound up a bitter man who quit going to church altogether.  In 1954, not quite half a century ago, Congress added the words, “under God”.  No less an authority than Bellamy’s granddaughter stated that Bellamy would have opposed such a change.

All of that to suggest to you that Mr. Bellamy had an ulterior motive, and that it may well have been nationalism over Christianity.  Some of you think that the USA is the Church, and the Church is the USA.  Others of you realize that they are different.

My father told me recently, before he passed away, that he well remembered how he and his classmates in the 1920’s stood up to recite the pledge, holding their outstretched hands in a Nazi-style salute toward the United States flag.  It was done in every school in the USA, until 1942, when Congress put a stop to that.

The Flag Code now specifies that any future official changes to the pledge require the consent of the President.  Various groups have tried to improve upon the pledge with variations that promoted their agenda.  Pro-Life advocates, for instance, argue that it could be improved by adding the words, “born and unborn,” at the end.  I don’t have a problem with that.

But some years ago I quit saying the pledge the way it is written, because it violates a basis American principle.  The offensive word to me is “indivisible”.  This nation is not, it never was, and it never will be indivisible. 

It was the right of a free people to dissolve the political bands which connected them with another in 1776.  England disagreed.  War ensued.  Freedom prevailed.

It was the right of a free people to dissolve the political bands which connected them with another in 1861.  Abraham Lincoln disagreed.  War ensued.  Freedom lost.

It is the right of a free people to dissolve the political bands which connect them with another in 2003.  If we are not allowed to do it, we are not free.  South or North.

If you are one of those people who still likes to say that socialist pledge to the Flag, you go right ahead.  And if it makes you feel like a free man to say the words, “under God,” nice and loud, then you do that too.

But I strongly encourage you to drop the anti-American word, “indivisible”, from your version of the pledge for the simple reason that anything which can be joined together can, in fact, be divided.  And if Division is the will of the People, then it is the Right of the People.

That’s called “self-determination.”  We hear the U.S. government give lip service to that all the time.  If they believed their own propaganda, they would allow a plebiscite by the People of any State to withdraw themselves from a compact which the People perceive to be broken, “and to institute in its place new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”  (If you’re curious about where I got those words, click here.)

Until those who wish to be Free are allowed to be Free, they are not free.  Even a socialist ought to understand that.

See Dr. John Baer’s excellent “The Pledge of Allegiance — A Short History”: http://history.vineyard.net/pledge.htm

© Daniel D. New, Permission to copy, with credits, is hereby granted.-