I was watching (the now late) Christopher Hitchens (at left) (a hero of mine) and Salman Rushdie (below at left) kick topics around for a while at Cooper Union in New York City, courtesy of C-Span2’s Book TV. Eventually, the topic meandered toward use of the word “under God” in The Pledge of Allegiance. There have been two recent efforts, rebuffed by courts, to have those words taken out.
Hitchens, a prominent atheist who has written, “God is Not Great,” offered what he described as a conservative, “constructionist” argument for striking out “under God.” His eyes were twinkling a bit, but I think there’s a chance he was serious. He pointed out that the original, 1892, author of the Pledge, a Baptist minister socialist named Francis Bellamy, never had the words “under God” in his original draft. Here’s what Bellamy wrote: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
A true conservative would return to the original intent, argued Hitchens, and strike out “under God,” particularly since “under God,” Hitchens continued, was added in 1954, at the height of the McCarthy Era. Why would any conservative condone such social engineering be imposed upon something as sacred as The Pledge of Allegiance?
It’s worth thinking about, although there is a small inconsistency in Hitchens’ argument. The Pledge has been changed several times since Bellamy’s original draft. “To,” “the,” “of,” “United States,” and “America” were all added to The Pledge prior to “under God” in 1954.
You can watch a lecture by Hitchens and then a chat between Hitchens and Rushdie here.
-- Doug Gibson
-- Originally published in 2010 at StandardBlogs.
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