Why under god was added to the pledge of allegiance

Acton-Boxborough Regional School District involved a group of parents, teachers and the American Humanist Association in an action against a school district. In February , a judge ruled in favor of the school district. An event in drew attention to the ability of states to require students at public schools to get parental permission before opting out of the pledge, when a sixth-grade student was arrested in a pledge dispute. That case was dropped in March , but the incident harkened back to Frazier v.

Winn , a lower court decision that the U. Abraham Lincoln understood that the nation's unity and freedom depended upon being one nation under God. He began his address by referring to the Founding Fathers' foundation in God-given rights: "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. Martin Luther King, Jr. It doesn't matter that the phrase "under God" was added to the Pledge in the s.

Some people argue that "under God" was not in the original Pledge and was inserted over 50 years later. But, that only proves it took over 50 years to get it right! The phrase "under God" does not make the Pledge a prayer. Some people argue that "under God" is a form of prayer, and thus it is unconstitutional to have schoolchildren recite it. However, a careful reading of the Pledge of Allegiance reveals that we are not pledging allegiance to God. We are, instead, pledging allegiance to a republic.

The Pledge then describes the republic as one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. In other words, it acknowledges the Founders' declaration that our freedom comes from God, not the state.

Throughout America's history, as Jefferson 18th century , Lincoln 19th century , and King 20th century attested, the American people's freedom -- the freedom of your neighbors, your co-workers, your children, and their teachers, are because we are one nation under God.

Take that principle away, remove it from our national consciousness, and we will lose the very basis for the freedoms we so easily take for granted. In , Louis Rabaut , a democrat from Michigan sponsored a resolution to add the words "under God" to the Pledge. It failed. But by then, the decision was up to President Dwight D.

Recently baptized as a Presbyterian, he heard a sermon, arguing the words "under God" from Lincoln's speech set the United States apart from others as a nation. At the time, the Cold War was gaining steam, and Eisenhower was fighting communism across the globe.

The next day, the president encouraged Charles Oakman , a republican also from Michigan , to re-introduce the bill, which Congress passed. Eisenhower signed it into law on June 14, A story announcing the news in the Washington Post quoted him as saying the new version would add "spiritual weapons which will forever be our country's most powerful resource.

Naturally, in a nation with growing diversity of religions, "under God" has proven a polarizing phrase. Separation of church and state also factors into the politicized discussion. The man must have loved his new religion.

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