• This highlights an interesting piece of American history. • The majority of Americans have learned the Pledge of Allegiance after it was changed. The words “under God” were inserted in the 50s. The change happened when I was about fifth or sixth grade. We also changed our motto from “E Pluribus Unum” to the more visibly devout “In God We Trust” so that the world could see how saintly we were. (Because what’s the point of having a religion unless you use it to trumpet how religious you are from the street corner. Everyone knows that it is more important to preach that stuff than practice it.) • The 50s were a time of renewed public piety. Hollywood flooded us with religions movies: “Quo Vadis”, “The Robe” (in cinemascope!), and “The Ten Commandments” were just a few blockbusters. The studio promoted that last film by donating hundreds of now sacrosanct stone Ten Commandments to courthouse grounds around the country. It was like a national contest to prove who was godlier. Even New York State came up with a school prayer. That prayer sounded like it was composed by the state legal department. It included “thee” and “thy” and had all the inspirational impact of an owner’s manual. It certainly sounded official. • I was driving through Mount Morris, New York just a few years ago and saw historical markers for Francis Bellamy, the author of the Pledge of Allegiance. I looked him up. He wrote the pledge in the 1890s at a time of patriotic hubris in our history. I found out later that Francis Bellamy was a cousin of Edward Bellamy who wrote “Looking Backward”. I read “Looking Backward” as a teenager. (I read a lot of weird stuff as a kid.) • I’d prefer that we take the neon-lit public piety back out of our pledge and motto and digest it into our actions and inner beings instead. Think of Matthew 7:21.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 14:55:59 +0000
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