Response to Oregonian

   The words "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance are not "a historic monument of faith." The pledge was written by Francis Bellamy, a socialist minister, in 1892. In its original form it read: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." It was written not specifically for Americans, but for citizens of any nation to express pledge their allegiance to liberty and justice. In 1923 the pledge was altered, against Bellamy's wishes to say "the flag of the United States of America" instead of the generic "my flag." The pledge was further altered in 1954 during the anti-Communist fervor of McCarthyism, to include the phrase "Under God."

   This phrase is more an expression of the hatred of the Soviets in our recent past than any significant historic value dating back to the times of Franklin and Lincoln, who were quoted in the article. Our country was not founded on religious principals. The Declaration of Independence refers to a Creator, and to "Nature's God." At the time this document, and others important to our nation, were drafted there had been little scientific investigation to origins and many natural events were unexplained, so it was with this spiritual language of the day that the concepts of equality and justice had to have been presented.

   Most of our "Founding Fathers" expressed sentiments that religion, specifically Christianity was false, but, as the people of the time were generally religious, they used spiritual language to appeal to the masses. Benjamin Franklin said "In the affairs of the world, men are saved, not by faith, but by the want of it." He was a man of science who believed the only way to understand our world, and to live together as rational human beings was through reason and scientific investigation. Thomas Jefferson wrote, in 1813 "History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes." Obviously, he felt that religion had no place in a Democracy or Republic where the people were charged with determining their own destiny through independent thought and democratic voting. Lincoln, who was an atheist in his early years, later came to believe in God, but he was against organized religion. He stated "The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma."

   The most important issue at hand is the separation of Church and State, and the degree of this separation. It is a misconception that the idea of setting apart matters of state and region is recent in origin. Since this country's inception, we have had the goal of total secular governing, our Founders were driven to prevent the divine rights that had accompanied kings in Europe from infecting a government for the people, by the people. James Madison reiterated this most clearly when he said in 1822 in a letter to Edward Livingston, "Every new and successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between the ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together." Madison, and our other Founding Fathers would whole-heartedly support Newdow, and his aim to re-secularize the country. The real travesty is not the abolition of religious values, but the the intertwining of church and state compounded by the mistake in thinking this is how our country was meant to be.

     It is apparent that the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is not a historic monument that reminds us of our religious heritage, but a reflection of recent political thought and a shifting away from the secular values our country was founded upon. It was more a "slap in the face" when it was first added to the Pledge than when Americans wanting to bring this country back to the ideals of Democracy and the values of our founders attempt to right this mistake. A mistake that was allowed to happen because of fear and paranoia, not Patriotism.