The Pledge_ A History of the Pledge of Allegiance - Jeffrey Owen Jones [66]
Then Docherty identified the one element that would separate the Pledge in the United States from one that could be recited in Soviet Russia, an element that Abraham Lincoln had insightfully identified nearly one hundred years before:
It is the one fundamental concept that completely and ultimately separates Communist Russia from the democratic institutions of this Country. This was seen clearly by Lincoln. “One nation UNDER GOD” this people shall know a new birth of freedom. And “UNDER GOD” are the definitive words. . . . We face, today, a theological war. . . . It is . . . a battle of the gods. It is the view of man as it came down to us from the Judeo-Christian civilization in mortal combat against modern, secularized, godless humanity. . . . To omit the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance is to omit the definitive character of the “American Way of Life.”
Docherty next addressed the issue of the separation of church and state promised in the U.S. Constitution. He interpreted the First Amendment guarantee only as not allowing an official church of the state, not a denial of a supreme being. He wound up his sermon by arguing the continuity of the use of the acknowledgment of God throughout government activities as the logical reason for adding “under God” to the Pledge:
In Jefferson’s phrase, if we deny the existence of the “God who gave us life,” how can we live by “the liberty he gave us at the same time”? This is a God fearing nation. On our coins, bearing the imprint of Lincoln and Jefferson, are the words “In God We Trust.” Congress is opened with prayer. It is upon the Holy Bible the President takes his oath of office. Naturalized citizens, when they take their oath of allegiance, conclude solemnly, with the words “so help me God.”
These same arguments would be used over and over in the future whenever the inclusion of “under God” in the Pledge was contested.
Docherty’s sermon was immediately celebrated by Eisenhower and throughout the country. It was reprinted in popular book form. Its influence spread through Congress and, despite some minor squabbling, Congress passed the resolution with almost no opposition.* “I have been most pleased to note in the press a report of the sermon,” said Congressman Louis Rabaut (D.-Mich.), who had already introduced the bill “to Amend the Pledge of Allegiance to Include the Phrase ‘Under God,’ ” addressing his House colleagues. “You may argue from dawn to dusk about differing political, economic, and social systems, but the fundamental issue which is the unbridgeable gap between America and Communist Russia is a belief in Almighty God.” And he summed up perfectly the logic of the anti-Communist fervor of the time:
From the root of atheism stems the evil weed of communism and its branches of materialism and political dictatorship. Unless we are willing to affirm our belief in the existence of God and His creator-creature relation to man, we drop man himself to the significance of a grain of sand and open the floodgates to tyranny and oppression.
Fittingly, on June 14, 1954, Flag Day—just a few months after Docherty’s sermon—Eisenhower signed the bill into law.
Right after the signing, on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, the new Pledge was recited by a group of government officials and representatives from such groups as the American Legion. A bugle rendition of “Onward, Christian Soldiers” followed. The event was carried live on the CBS network with commentator Walter Cronkite declaring it a “stirring event.”
The historic influence of Docherty’s sermon continued with the related Cold War adoption of the phrase “In God We Trust” as the official motto of the United States, which was signed into law by Eisenhower in 1956.
Both actions were embraced with overwhelming popularity by politician and voters alike, Republicans and Democrats. Embarrassingly for the Democrats, however, a televised recitation of the Pledge during the 1956 Democratic National Convention accidentally