There is a lot of misinformation surrounding the separation of church and state in this country. Some will claim that it was the Founders who introduced "In God We Trust" as the national motto, and "under, God" in the pledge, but that is not the case. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were staunch separationists who advocated for a secular Constitution and Bill of Rights.
- IN GOD WE TRUST
The nation’s motto was originally “E Pluribus Unum” (or, “From Many, One”), a phrase selected by a committee of Founding Fathers that included James Madison. "In God We Trust" made its first appearance on United States currency in 1864, during the Civil War. Done without public debate, it was placed on the 2 cent piece as a statement that God was on the side of the Union Army during the Civil War. The motto “In God We Trust” dates from the Civil War not the founding of the nation, and was not formally adopted as the national motto until 1956. - THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister. Bellamy crafted the Pledge for a magazine called The Youth's Companion as part of a patriotic exercise to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the New World. Bellamy, who was an advocate of church-state separation, did not include religious references in his Pledge. He also didn't include any reference to a specific nation because he had hoped the pledge might someday become a "world" pledge, and be used to bring people together. In 1954, Congress inserted the phrase "under God" into the Pledge after a lobbying campaign led by the Knights of Columbus. Until that time the Pledge had been a purely patriotic exercise. As is often the case, religion was injected into the public sphere during a time of crisis. In this case it was during the McCarthy era, and the change was seen as a blow against "godless communism" in the Soviet Union.
4 comments:
McCain has shown himself to be a craven panderer. He cannot be trusted in this regard.
I love what Dcup said... craven panderer. We can not trust him in any regard!
The common idiocy that somehow this is a Christian country really ticks me off as you know.
The Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves at the distortion of their views. Separation of Church and State was paramount to them, but the average American today seems to have forgotten that.
And thank you for posting the history of the Pledge of Allegiance -- even Sarah Palin was quoted as saying "If it was good enough for the Founding Fathers, it's good enough for me!"
Maybe she missed that part of Constitutional Law when she was college-hopping. Oh, that's right -- she was a Communications major. No law classes for her!
Church has no business in the state, even a church with liberal stances more in line with ours than with the GOP. They are completely incompatible with each other.
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