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Brocquin Alexander
English 11
Laurie Oberg
B3
3/5/15

Pledge of Allegiance Paper

In 1954, at President Dwight D. Eisenhower's urging, the Congress legislated
that under God be added, making the pledge read: 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. Recently this change has come to the
attention of many American citizens because many people believe that under God
should be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance. I am arguing that the pledge of
allegiance should not keep the words under God in the pledge for reasons such as
under God proclaiming christianity and the question, how does it express our
patriotism?
One of the main reasons why people want to remove under God from the
Pledge is because they believe that having that phrase promotes christian beliefs to
everyone who says it. When we are using this Pledge everyday in schools and having
our kids say this pledge everyday, why are we promoting something that not everyone
believes. This country was founded on christianity, but the country and people have
changed since then and now that more and more religions are in the United States we
need to be able to move on and accept that not everyone believes in christianity

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anymore. Getting rid of under God from our National Pledge would be one more step
toward America being built on freedom of all religions.
Why was under God added after so many years? Well it all started during the
Red Scare which was around 1954. During this time many Americans were worried
about Communist beliefs taking over the country, which was not how people wanted
America to be. During this time propaganda was spreading everywhere and people
were afraid for there freedom, and so many things happened to the country, including
the addition of under God into the Pledge of Allegiance. Now that we are not in fear of
communism taking over our country it is a reasonable request that we should remove it
from the Pledge because it may offend people who do not believe in a God. This part of
the pledge serves no purpose, because in no way does it serve as a support of
patriotism like the rest of the pledge supports.
Now many people also do not believe that we should remove under God
because of reasons such as ruining the religious heritage of the country. Yes, this
country was founded on the christian religion, but that does not mean that we need to
be promoting the christian to all children through a pledge that schools legally have to
say. Also, the phrase under God wasnt even added until 1954, which is very recent
compared to the beginning of this country. so how would this be in any way promoting
what our country was founded on?
Having the phrase under God in the Pledge of Allegiance is a very controversial
topic because many different people have different beliefs on the subject. Though many
people believe that it was introduced with the original pledge, it was added in 1954 and
has nothing to with the founding of the country. Having under God just creates more

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problems than what it promotes now that our country is in a different situation, thus is
should be removed from the pledge.

"How the Words Under God Were Added to the Pledge." KOFC. Knights Of Columbus,
1 Jan. 1995. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.kofc.org/un/en/resources/communications/pledgeAllegiance.pdf>.

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Con, Pro. "Top 10 Pros and Cons - Under God in the Pledge - ProCon.org." ProCon.org
Headlines. ProCon. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.
<http://undergod.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000063>.

"Remove "Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance." Remove "Under God" from the
Pledge of Allegiance. SCA, 12 Jan. 2015. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.
<https://www.secular.org/issues/pledge>.