One nation under question: An Independence Day message

Sunday June 19th, 2011, two weeks ago, witnessed yet another sad episode in the struggle for the soul of America.

During the opening broadcast of the U.S. Open, NBC showed a montage that included children reciting the pledge, but the words “under G-d” and “indivisible” were omitted twice. The reaction by an alert and devout public was immediate and fierce prompting an apology, prompt, but lame.

Controversy over these phrases in the pledge has dogged us for over the last half century since its adoption. As Jews, any public mention of G-d has always evoked an element of sensitivity. As the faith that brought the belief in one G-d to the world we have always taken pride in its adoption, in however a modified form, by other faiths and civilizations.

A recently published book, “The Pledge: A History of the Pledge of Allegiance” [St. Martins Press, 2010] by journalists Jeffrey Owen Jones and Peter Meyer, goes into some detail on the origins of the pledge and the “under G-d” flap.

The first public use of the term “under G-d” according to the authors was during a pledge recitation on February 12, 1948, at a Lincoln’s Birthday celebration in Chicago at the Illinois Society of the Sons of the American Revolution recited by their Protestant chaplain Louis A. Bowman. The authors claim that Bowman wanted the pledge to reflect the words Lincoln used in his famed Gettysburg Address:

“This nation under G-d, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

Much has been written concerning Lincoln’s intent in the use of G-d’s name both here and in many other speeches throughout his life. For a brief, yet comprehensive analysis of this I refer the reader to James Piereson’s essay, “Under G-d” from The Weekly Standard of October 18, 2003.

By 1951 the politically powerful Knights of Columbus, a Catholic group, joined the movement to include “under G-d” into the text of the pledge thus gaining a whole new set of religious advocates nationwide.

By the spring of 1953 the first congressional resolution supporting inclusion was introduced thus setting the stage for a final resolution to this issue.