One Nation Under God? Not for the first 347 years.

I just finished watching Jesus Camp, a documentary regarding Midwestern Evangelical Christians and the indoctrination of the children through Youth Ministries and Evangelical Summer Camp. It's really fascinating and terrifying stuff. And not to spoil the film for you, but I was particularly amused with the fact that the camp is held in the town of Devil's Lake, ND.

Like any good God-loving organization, these Evangelical Christians love the phrase "One Nation Under God". They use it repetitively to justify not only that Christianity has a place in American politics (at one point they're seen praying to a cut-out of George W. Bush), but that the United States of America is somehow Jesus' chosen country. Personally, I think if Jesus were to have a country, he'd like one that wasn't as crippled and divided as ours; maybe Finland.

But I digress. Upon completion of the film, I was compelled to look into this "One Nation Under God" thing. I was fairly certain it was not one of our founding principles -- not found in the Declaration of Independence, or even the Constitution -- and it was my understanding the phrase first appeared in the Pledge of Allegiance. So I sought to find out where that came from.

22 seconds later -- Wikipedia is a beautiful thing -- I had all the answers I was was looking for. In fact, this elusive phrase was more detached than I had even thought. I'm not going to reprint the entire Wikipedia article -- if you care to, you can read it here -- but let me simply throw out the pertinent facts.

The United States is considered to be founded in 1776. I don't think I need to cite anything here; this is fairly common knowledge. The beginnings of what we may consider "American" Colonial culture start considerably earlier with Jamestown in 1607, and Plymouth in 1620. Even my hometown of Milford was established in 1639. If we consider Jamestown the beginning of "America", then we're a hair over 400 years old.

400 years ago, our forefathers came to this continent seeking religious tolerance; not quite "One Nation Under God" yet. 232 years ago, 13 colonies come together as one Nation, defined by its Declaration of Independence to be "endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable Rights". So by 1776, we're acknowledging a Creator, by we're still a far cry from "One Nation Under God". So let's move ahead.

It's not from the Constitution; the words "God" or "Creator" don't even appear. So I guess we have to look to, as I was to understand, the first appearance of the phrase, the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy. Bellamy was a Baptist minister and a Christian Socialist. That must explain "One Nation Under God". Nope. When Bellamy's Pledge was printed in it's original form, in the popular children's magazine The Youth's Companion, as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, it read "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. America"

Only 106 years ago, and still, no sight of "One Nation Under God". So when do we find this elusive phrase. Be patient. We know we'll get to it soon.

The Pledge was first used in public schools, by proclamation of President Benjamin Harrison, on October 12, 1892, during Columbus Day observances. Still, no change in the language.

In 1923 the National Flag Conference called for a change in the wording. They changed the words "my Flag" to "the Flag of the United States". They wanted immigrants to know to which flag reference was being made. Apparently the standing and facing the American flag wasn't clarification enough. Still no God.

Later that year, a second edit was made. No God; just "of America".

In 1940 the Pledge of Allegience came before the Supreme Court. In Minersville School District v. Gobitis (a misspelling of Gobitases), the Court ruled that students in public schools could be compelled to recite the Pledge, even Jehovah's Witnesses like the Gobitases, who considered the flag salute to be idolatry. But even at this point, there's no mention of God in the Pledge.

In 1943 the Supreme Court reversed its decision, ruling in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that "compulsory unification of opinion" violated the First Amendment.

In 1945, after the Pledge had twice gone before the United State Supreme Court, the U.S. Congress officially recognized the Pledge as the official national pledge. I guess if we needed an "official national pledge", that would be the one. And still, it bears no reference to God.

In 1951, some 344 years after Jamestown, 175 years after the Declaration of Independence, God shows up in the Pledge... for some people. The Knights of Columbus, in New York City, felt that the pledge was incomplete without any reference to a deity. Citing language from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, took it upon themselves to add the phrase "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance, at the beginning of their own meetings.

On August 21, 1952, the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus adopted a resolution urging that the change be made universal, and copies of this resolution were sent to the President, the Vice President (as Presiding Officer of the Senate) and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. This urging was ignored.

The National Fraternal Congress meeting in Boston, on September 24, 1952, adopted a similar resolution. Several State Fraternal Congresses acted likewise almost immediately thereafter. This campaign led to several official attempts to prompt Congress to adopt the Knights of Columbus’ policy for the entire nation. These attempts failed.

Senator Homer Ferguson, finally brought a resolution before Congress, and in his report on March 10, 1954, said, "The introduction of this joint resolution was suggested to me by a sermon given recently by the Rev. George M. Docherty, of Washington, D.C., who is pastor of the church at which Lincoln worshipped." Congress passed the Oakman-Ferguson resolution, and Eisenhower signed the bill into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.

And so, for days short of a mere 54 years, and due to the work of the Knights of Columbus, and a Rev. Dochery inspired Senator Ferguson, we have been "One Nation Under God". And let us not even venture into the idea of even having an oath of Allegiance, or the nazi-esque salute that went along with it for the first 50 years. That rant will have to be saved for a different blog.