Time to change the Pledge

Two words in the Pledge of Allegiance - "under god" - have sparked a firestorm from the schools of California to the halls of the Supreme Court, which will decide next June about the legality of the phrase. In a diverse country with a great variety of religious faiths running the gamut from devout believers to atheists, issues of government and religion are a touchy subject. However, it is clear that the phrase is unconstitutional, and removing it will restore the Pledge to its original meaning.

The most obvious contention against the "under god" clause is that it violates
the Constitutional separation of church and state. Mandating young children in
public schools to pledge their allegiance to a nation "under god" is an unambiguous, if subtle, confirmation of a governmental belief in god. As the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, the phrase "under god" is as biased and unconstitutional as would be the phrases "under Jesus," or "under Allah." Although everyone is certainly entitled to their own rights and beliefs, the daily repetition of a phrase establishing a public belief in religion is both insulting to and excluding of atheists.

Most of those who believe in a god have no way to understand the exclusion often felt by those who do not. Imagine that instead of confirming the existence of a god, the Pledge specifically denied this belief. If American schoolchildren repeated the phrase, "one nation, under no god whatsoever," every school day the outcry from religious people would be deafening. It seems ludicrous to imagine schools publicly denying the existence of a god; it is just as ludicrous for schools to publicly proclaim the existence of such a god.

However, many people, including many prominent politicians, have said that to remove the phrase would be ridiculous and insulting to Americans everywhere. Surely, fundamentally altering such a basic piece of our American culture undermines our identity as a people and as a nation, right? Wrong. The phrase "under god" was never even a part of the Pledge until fairly recent times.

The Pledge was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy. His original Pledge read "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." The word ‘equality' would have been included, but many education officials were at that time opposed to equality for women and blacks. The Pledge existed for the first 60 years of its life as it should be, with no mention of god in it.

Only in 1954 did Congress pass an act adding the words "under god," partly to prove that America was better than the so-called godless Soviet Union. Ironically, Bellamy had been a dedicated socialist. Since the establishment clause of the Constitution's first amendment states that, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," the 1954 act was a clear instance of Congress overstepping its bounds.

Thus, the Supreme Court clearly needs to strike down the "under god" phrase. However, the Pledge should not be completely removed from schools by any means. It should only be made completely religion-neutral, with no mention of any god. Thus, everyone's differing beliefs would be respected and no one would be excluded from showing his or her patriotism. A religion-neutral pledge would not alter the fundamental meaning of the Pledge, but simply restore it to its original, Constitutional context.