What Would The Founders Think of The Pledge of Allegiance?


the view of Thomas Jefferson, erected a "wall of separation" between church and state.

While the American Civil Liberties Union ignores the Founding Fathers in its praise of the Ninth Circuit Court's ruling, the Philadelphia Daily News does no such thing. In its editorial, the Daily News boldly expresses its unequivocal confidence that its call for the removal of God's name "from anything with the government's seal of approval" is consistent with the Founders' opinion on the matter. "We don't know if God the Father wants that (and neither do you)," declares the editorial, "but we do know the Founding Fathers did."

According to Michael Newdow, the self-avowed athiest who instigated and personally argued the lawsuit that brought this ruling, the Founding Fathers "didn't want God infused in our government. They didn't want religion in there." According to Newdow and the two judges that agreed with him, this was the purpose of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. The response to this argument, made by many critics of Judge Goodwin's opinion, is that the Pledge's reference to "God" is so innocuous and abstract that it constitutes no threat to the First Amendment. They point to the late Justice William Brennan's categorization of certain religious references as "ceremonial deism," which, by and large, poses no threat to constitutional liberties.

Here, the defenders of the Pledge are on shaky ground. Arguing that the Pledge of Allegiance should be protected because it is essentially meaningless is a troubling argument, to say the least, no matter how often it has been used with other government references to God. It is also an inaccurate argument, given the intent of Congress when it revised the Pledge in 1954 , and the words of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in signing that revision. "In this way," declared Eisenhower, "we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war." Clearly, the addition of "under God" wasn't just ceremonial and it certainly wasn't meaningless or abstract.

Referring to that 1954 vote by Congress, Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United For Separation of Church and State, said: "Members of Congress made a mistake when they added religious language to the flag pledge. It changed an appropriate patriotic exercise into a religious ritual in which many Americans cannot in

The copyright of the article What Would The Founders Think of The Pledge of Allegiance? in American Revolution is owned by Brian Tubbs. Permission to republish What Would The Founders Think of The Pledge of Allegiance? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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