I don't want to engage in the discussion about events at Capitol Hill, save to say that despite the claims of those who engaged in the events believing they're 'True Americans' 'Defending the Constitution', I don't they've even read the Constitution. The First Amendment includes freedom of speech, freedom of peaceable assembly and the right to petition government for redress of government. But that’s not without limitation. Along with rights go responsibilities and no-one is free, nor should they be, to engage in the violent events on Capitol Hill.
The Constitution and 'God':
Many seem confused about what the American Constitution says, and assume that terms such as 'One Nation Under God' and 'In God We Trust' are part of it. The opposite is true. Neither ‘One Nation Under God’ nor ‘In God we Trust are any part of the constitution - they actually contradict the First Amendment and were not introduced until the 1950s.
Amendment I of the American Constitution made it clear that there was to
be complete separation of State and Religion. It states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
There was an important reason for that – they didn’t want the State to impose any particular religion upon the people because it could put them in the same position as they were in in England, with one ‘brand’ or religion getting the upper hand over another (As in Protestants V Catholics), leading to the sort of persecution that they’d endured.
The Puritans who sailed from England to America did so primarily due to religious persecution. The non-separatist Puritans wanted to remain in the church and reform it from within. The separatist Puritans felt the church was too corrupt to reform and instead wanted to separate from it.
‘One Nation Under God’:
‘One Nation Under God’ goes against and contradicts the First Amendment in that by inference, it establishes religion and State. It was not introduced into the pledge until June 1954. During the
Cold War era, many Americans wanted to distinguish the United States from the
state atheism promoted by Marxist-Leninist countries, a view that led to support for the words "under God" to be added to the Pledge of Allegiance.
Congress passed the necessary legislation and Eisenhower signed the bill into law on
Flag Day, June 14, 1954 President Eisenhower said:
“From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.... In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource, in peace or in war”.
That statement imposes religion by the State upon its people - by including it, America ceased to be a 'democracy' and became a 'theocracy'.
Pledge of Allegiance’:
Again, nothing to do with the Constitution – it first appeared in a popular American Children’s magazine. It was composed in 1892 by Francis Bellamy – a Baptist Minister and Christian Socialist. The Bellamy "Pledge of Allegiance" was first published in the September 8 issue of the popular children's magazine
The Youth's Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of
Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of
Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The event was conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, as a campaign to instil the idea of
American nationalism in students and to encourage children to raise flags above their schools. Bellamy's original Pledge read: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”.
Bellamy designed the Pledge it to be quick and to the point, to be recited in 15 seconds. As a socialist, he initially considered adding the words
equality and
fraternity but decided against it, knowing that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans.
In 1906, The Daughters of the American Revolution's magazine,
The American Monthly, used the following wording for the pledge of allegiance, based on Balch's Pledge: I pledge allegiance to my flag, and the republic for which it stands. I pledge my head and my heart to God and my country. One country, one language and one flag.
In 1923, the National Flag Conference called for the words "my Flag" to be changed to "the Flag of the United States," so that new immigrants would not confuse loyalties between their birth countries and the US. The words "of America" were added a year later. Congress officially recognized the Pledge for the first time, in the following form, on June 22, 1942. “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”.
America introduced the phrase “one nation under God,” at the height of the Cold War in 1954, as the country tried to distinguish itself from “godless” communism. In doing so, they went against both the establishment clause ('No law respecting the establishment of religion'), and the right to free speech, by persecuting those who do not wish to recite the pledge because they are not religious. That doesn’t mean dissenters don’t support the rest of the pledge, but they’re harassed and persecuted for not reciting it. If students are coerced into pledging their allegiance as a blind expression of loyalty to a state, it violate the rights and freedoms of its citizens - it does not resemble freedom of thought and it’s not freedom at all:
Pledge Laws: Controlling Protest and Patriotism in Schools | Teaching Tolerance
‘In God We Trust’:
" In God We Trust " was not part of the American Constitution, and as with ‘One Nation Under God’ goes against the First Amendment. ", is the official motto of the United States of America and of the U.S. state of Florida. It was adopted by the U.S. Congress in 1956. It supplanting the non-religious motto ‘
E pluribus unum’, in use since 1776 on the design of the
Great Seal of the United States. The thirteen-letter motto was actually from an English magazine. At the time of the
American Revolution, the phrase appeared regularly on the title page of the London-based
Gentleman's Magazine, which collected articles from many sources into one periodical. Translated, it means "Out of many, one”. The inference of its use on the Seal being ‘many people united as one’.
Despite the high level of real or pretended religiosity in America, there will be many millions of non-religious Americans, just as there are in the UK who have no religion, and cannot recite the pledge in its entirety with any real conviction. The same applies to the British National Anthem. I Don’t recite the first word of the British National Anthem (‘God save our Gracious Queen) as I’m a humanist and don’t believe in the existence of any supernatural creator. I'm in the majority in Britain in that regard, but it doesn't mean I'm disloyal. (Like many who have given an oath of allegiance, Judges, Magistrates, Police Officers, Members of the Armed Forces, I ‘affirmed’ - I did not ‘Swear by Almighty God’).
Fifty-two percent of the public in Britain say they do not belong to any religion, compared with 31% in 1983 when the British Attitude Survey began tracking religious belief. The number of people identifying as Christian has fallen from 66% to 38% over the same period. Only 1% of people aged 18-24 identify as Church of England. Even among over-75s, the most religious age group, only one in three people describe themselves as C of E.
Posted for information - not argument.
