Dusting Off the Lemon Pledge of Allegiance

The Supreme Court preserved the phrase "one nation, under God," in the Pledge of Allegiance, ruling Monday that a California atheist could not challenge the patriotic oath... Read the AP Story

To promote informed conversation, the Editors of this Blog decided to share the less known versions of the Pledge with readers. Note: the original Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, an ex-Baptist minister who was thrown out of his church for being a Socialist who preached about a Utopian society where everyone belonged to a "perfect" middle class, and everybody called each other "comrade."

1892: (Bellamy's original version) "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands - one nation indivisible - with liberty and justice for all."

1923: (Nat. Flag Conference) "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and the Republic for which it stands - one nation indivisible - with liberty and justice for all."

1942: Congress officially recognized the pledge - (this was Strom Thurman's Dixiecrat version) "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and the white Republic for which it stands - one nation indivisible, except for segregated schools, eating establishments, and public bathrooms - with liberty and justice for all but the negroes."

1954: (The Eisenhower version) "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."

Thank you, President Eisenhower, for diluting the Red Menace out of that pledge by adding a little old-time religion.