Two Words From Flag Day 1954 Still Say Exactly Who We Are

I’ll confess something a little corny. When I say the Pledge of Allegiance, I slow down on two words. “Under God.” I can’t help it. They’re my favorite part.

So I went back and looked up where they came from. The story is better than I remembered.

A short history

According to the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center (opens in a new tab), Francis Bellamy wrote the original Pledge for an 1892 Columbus Day school celebration. Congress recognized an amended version as the official national pledge in 1942, as part of the rules for honoring the flag.

Then, on June 14, 1954 — Flag Day — President Dwight Eisenhower signed Public Law 396 (opens in a new tab), which put two new words into the Pledge. Since then it has read: “one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

When he signed it, Eisenhower released a statement (opens in a new tab) that I think every American should read. It starts like this: “From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.”

A little later he wrote that “in this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future.” This was 1954, deep in the Cold War, and the same statement talks about a world where people were being “deadened in mind and soul by a materialistic philosophy of life.” You don’t have to squint to see what he was contrasting America with.

Why those words still matter

“Under God” isn’t decoration. It’s a claim about where our rights come from.

If your rights come from the government, the government can take them back. If they come from God, no president, no court and no mob gets to revoke them. That’s the whole American idea, going back to the Declaration: we are endowed by our Creator with rights that no man can take away.

It also keeps us humble. A nation “under God” is a nation that admits it answers to Someone higher. That’s the best protection against tyranny ever devised. Leaders who think they’re the final authority get dangerous fast.

Freedom includes the freedom to sit it out

I want to be fair here, because I believe in liberty. The Capitol Visitor Center notes that in 1943 the Supreme Court upheld a citizen’s right to follow his own conscience in choosing whether to recite the Pledge. Good. Nobody should be forced. A pledge you’re made to say isn’t really a pledge.

But I’d gently say this to anyone who stays quiet: you’re free to, and I’ll defend that freedom. I just hope you’ll think about what the words mean. They aren’t about forcing a church on anybody. They’re about remembering that freedom is a gift before it’s a law.

What I’m asking you to do

Next time you’re at a ballgame, a school assembly, a town meeting, or a Rotary breakfast, and they ask everyone to rise, say it like you mean it. Hand over your heart. Out loud. Don’t rush through “under God.”

Teach your kids what it means. Tell them about Flag Day 1954, and about a president who wanted every schoolhouse in America to start the day by remembering who we are.

Because we are still one nation under God. And I believe we’re going to stay that way.

Sources

• Public Law 396, 83rd Congress (June 14, 1954), congress.gov (opens in a new tab)
• President Eisenhower, statement on signing the bill adding “under God” (American Presidency Project) (opens in a new tab)
• U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, H.J. Res. 243 and the history of the Pledge (opens in a new tab)