Thanks to the miracle invention of the search engine, it does not take a lengthy episode of research to investigate the origins of the “Pledge of Allegiance” that we were asked to recite daily in elementary school. As most of you, I grew up reciting the pledge as:
“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.”
Looking at the words and the content, it makes me laugh to now hear the sing-song like melody which is used in reciting the pledge. Its as if a total disconnect has been made from what is being said. The pledge often is read as if one is reciting the contents of a shopping list:
It’s almost the same tone you would use to say:
It’s so much a memorized “song” that the recent omission that many have made to the words “under God” seem to make it not flow. To a child, it’s just one less thing to memorize in the list. It’s like when I learned the Gettysburg Address and it essentially became a memorization of a “list.”
The Pledge of Allegiance really was just a list when it was created. The Pledge was written in the early 1890’s by a Socialist preacher named Francis Bellamy. He wrote the pledge with the idea of equality for all in mind, wanting to express the Utopian Socialist values the he and his cousin, Edward Bellamy held. Edward was a famous Socialist author. The original pledge was written:
1892
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and (to*) the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
It’s recorded that Bellamy wanted to include the word “equality” in his list, but the socio-political views of the school superintendents would not agree with th idea of equality for all.
In 1924, the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution had the pledge changed from “my flag” to “the flag of the United States of America.”
1924
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
In the 50’s, there was a Communism scare in America very similar to the fear of Muslim extremist terrorists that exists today.
The fear in Americans during “The McCarthy Era” was leveraged to promote religious beliefs. The Knights of Columbus argued that the words “Under God” should be added to the pledge. How does that defeat Communism? It doesn’t. But if you can imagine a society in which people are looking to finger-point the Anti-American they see, and being “God-Fearing” is seen as an American social attribute, and atheism is seen as a Communist social attribute, you’d better believe no one’s going to win a fight for the atheists. Non-God-Fearing individuals would be seen as anti-American. And in the heat of that era, the distance between Anti-American and Communist was not very far.
So the Knights of Columbus won their battle, and the pledge now appeared as so:
1954
“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.”
I bet if you were to ask around, you’d find a lot of people who would swear that the pledge has always been that way, and that taking the “under God” out of the pledge would be like running the U.S. Constitution through the paper shredder.
The “under God” is constantly being battled by those who recognize that the phrase turns the pledge of a secular nation into a prayer.
Info from:
A Short History of the Pledge of Allegiance by John W. Baer
ReligiousTolerance.org’s Pledge of Allegiance Background Material
Help restore the pledge:
Restorethepledge.org (beware of the stupid music)
Freedom From Religion Foundation
The Great Realization 
Wow! You were right about the music at Restorethepledge.org. This is information all Americans should have.
Thanks for the comments about the Pledge of Allegiance.
Pledge of Allegiance pictures http://rexcurry.net/pledge-allegiance-pledge-allegiance.jpg and Swastikas pictures http://rexcurry.net/swastika3clear.jpg expose shocking secrets about American history.
Socialists in the USA originated the Nazi salute, robotic group-chanting to flags, Nazism, flag fetishism, and the modern swastika as “S” symbolism for “Socialism.” http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html
Much of that history is the history of the Pledge Of Allegiance.
Those historical facts explain the enormous size and scope of government today, and the USA’s growing police state. They are reasons for massive reductions in government, taxation, spending and socialism.
The “Nazi salute” is more accurately called the “American salute” as it was created and popularized by national socialists in the USA. It was the early salute of the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge was written by Francis Bellamy. http://rexcurry.net/pledgetragedy.html Francis Bellamy was cousin and cohort of Edward Bellamy. http://rexcurry.net/pledgebackward.html Edward Bellamy and Francis Bellamy were self-proclaimed socialists in the Nationalism movement and they promoted military socialism.
They wanted the government to take over education and use it to spread their worship of government. When the government granted their wish, the government’s schools imposed segregation by law and taught racism as official policy. The official racism and segregation was a bad example three decades before the National Socialist German Workers Party, and decades afterward.
The Pledge was mandated by law in government schools for three decades before, and through, the creation of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. http://rexcurry.net/bellamy-edward-karl-marx.html
see photo of Pledge of Allegiance http://rexcurry.net/USA-pledge-of-allegiance-rexcurrydotnet.jpg Pledge of Allegiance.
Many people do not know that the term “Nazi” means “National Socialist German Workers’ Party.” Members of the horrid group did not call themselves Nazis. In that sense, there was no Nazi Party. They also did not call themselves Fascists. They called themselves socialists, just as their name indicates.
The historian Dr. Rex Curry showed that the early Pledge Of Allegiance did not use an ancient Roman salute, and that the ‘ancient Roman salute’ myth came from the Pledge Of Allegiance. The discoveries have been reviewed and verified on wikipedia http://rexcurry.net/roman-salute-metropolitan-museum-of-art.html
The original pledge was anti libertarian and began with a military salute that then stretched out toward the flag. In actual use, the second part of the gesture was performed with a straight arm and palm down by children casually performing the forced ritual chanting. Due to the way that both gestures were used sequentially in the pledge, the military salute led to the Nazi salute. The Nazi salute is an extended military salute via the USA’s Pledge Of Allegiance.
Media coverage about the discoveries continues to grow http://rexcurry.net/audio-rex-curry-podcast-radio.html
Fan mail for work exposing the Pledge’s poisonous pedigree is at http://rexcurry.net/pledge_heart.html
And listen at http://odeo.com/audio/1747108/view
The Pledge’s early salute caused quite a Fuhrer/furor. The dogma behind the Pledge was the same dogma that led to the socialist Wholecost (of which the Holocaust was a part): 62 million slaughtered under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 49 million under the Peoples’ Republic of China; 21 million under the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. It was the worst slaughter of humanity ever.
People were persecuted (beatings, lynchings, etc) for refusing to perform robotic chanting to the national flag at the same time in government schools in the USA and Germany (to the American flag, and to the German swastika flag).
American socialists (e.g. Edward Bellamy and Francis Bellamy teamed with the Theosophical Society and Freemasons) bear some blame for altering the notorious symbol used as overlapping S-letters for “socialism” under the National Socialist German Workers Party.
The same symbol was used by the Theosophical Society during the time when the Bellamys, Freemasons and the Theosophical Society worked together to promote socialism.
http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-swastika.html
They also originated and helped to spread the stiff arm salute via the Pledge of Allegiance at their meetings.
As German socialism’s notorious flag symbol, the swastika was deliberately turned 45 degrees to the horizontal and always oriented in the S-direction. Similar alphabetic symbolism is still visible as Volkswagen logos. http://rexcurry.net/swastika-audi-logo.JPG
The bizarre acts in the USA began as early as 1875 and continued through the creation of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (German Nazis or NSGWP). American soldiers used the swastika symbol in WWI (against Germany) and the symbol was used by the American military during WWII. http://rexcurry.net/45th-infantry-division-swastika-sooner-soldiers.html
The NSGWP had clear roots in National Socialism promoted by socialists in the USA. Amazing graphic images that prove the point are at http://rexcurry.net/theosophy-madame-blavatsky-theosophical-society.html
The USA is still the worst example in the world of bizarre laws that require robotic chanting to a national flag in government schools (socialist schools) every day for 12 years. It has changed generations of Americans from libertarians to authoritarians. The government bamboozled individuals into believing that collective robotic chanting in government schools daily is a beautiful expression of freedom. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html