Under God

“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.” – Pledge of Allegiance

As an interesting tidbit, the two-word phrase of “under God” was added in 1954 because Lincoln was said to have said it in the Gettysburg Address when he stated, “that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom.” This was also a controversy in itself because only half of the manuscripts of his speech had these two words in it.

Over the past two hundred plus years there has been controversy between religion and the nation. The controversy is about how religion and the country’s government shouldn’t have anything to do with each other. Before 1954 there was no God mentioned in the Pledge of Allegiance, but today there is and many people have problems with this reference. Not all the people who are opposed are non-religious or have other beliefs with no or more then one God. Many Christians also believe that God should not be a part of the pledge.

I believe that there shouldn’t be God in the United States Pledge of Allegiance for two reasons.

First the Untied States was not founded on the premise of a common religion. Although many of the founding fathers were Christian, religion was not their goal in making this country unlike others founders that based their countries on religion. The founding father’s of the United States goal was to make a country that was built off the concept of life, liberty, and the pursuit of freedom. They didn’t want to form a government that was powerful enough to dictate a religion because many of the people came to America because of religious persecution in their home countries. Today the government is not always led by Christians and governmental figures try to stay out of the religion part of people’s lives.

The second reason why I don’t think God should be in the pledge is that this country is not made up of only Christians who believe in one God, but made up of people from a various religions and beliefs. Some of these other beliefs don’t believe in a God or have more then one God that they follow. Saying the Pledge of Allegiance might make non Christians feel weird or uncomfortable. The Pledge of Allegiance should be something that all US citizens can say and believe in.