Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
~ Samuel Johnson

When questioning a patriotic symbol, one treads on dangerous ground. People immediately assume that the questioner has some perverse agenda, but in this case my motives are pure and rational and sound. I have repeated our national mantra thousands of times in school, at vacation Bible school, and at various civic and business meetings. Only recently, however, did I begin to listen to what I was saying. When I began to ask myself questions, I discovered why the Pledge of Allegiance was written.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by a defrocked Baptist minister, Francis Bellamy. Later that year school children first recited it at the dedication of the World's Fair in Chicago. The “Columbian Exposition” in Chicago celebrated the 400^th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the New World. According to Bellamy, the occasion for his drafting the pledge was his desire to establish Columbus Day as a national holiday and to create a ‘universal doxology' for all Americans. Since a “doxology” is a hymn of praise to some god, Bellamy’s purpose raised even more questions in my mind.

The Pledge was first published in The Youth’s Companion, the leading family magazine of its day. The owner and editor of the magazine, Daniel Ford, had hired Bellamy as his assistant when he was pressured into leaving his church in Boston. As a member of his congregation, Ford had enjoyed his sermons, but Bellamy was too radical even for liberal Boston in the late 1800's. He was forced to leave his church because of his extreme socialist views.

Francis Bellamy was first cousin of famous American socialist Edward Bellamy, who died in 1898. Edward Bellamy is best known for lending his name to informal socialistic associations around the U.S. (‘Bellamy Clubs') and for writing a novel, Looking Backward, a novel in which a man falls asleep in Boston and wakes up in the year 2000 to find a socialist utopia. After Edward's death, cousin Francis took it upon himself to revise, edit, and write an introduction for future editions of his late cousin's works.

As chairman of the National Education Association’s committee of state superintendents of education, Bellamy prepared the program for the public schools’ quadricentennial celebration for Columbus Day in 1892. He structured this public school program around a flag raising ceremony and a flag salute – his "Pledge of Allegiance" (with arm outstretched in the fascist style salute): “I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” (In 1954 Congress added the words “under God.”)

My first problem comes with the word “pledge.” A pledge is a promise or agreement which normally includes a reciprocal benefit. If I pledge my car to the bank, I expect some cash in return. During my wedding, I pledged faithfulness to my wife and in return she pledged the same. But when I pledge my allegiance to the flag, blind devotion (“love it or leave it”) is expected and nothing is promised in return. Someone is asking me to sign a blank check!

My second problem is that I am pledging my “allegiance.” By definition, “allegiance” is my devotion or loyalty; my duty as a subject to my sovereign king. Allegiance is a word which ought not to be taken lightly. It is a word of solemn contract. It is a word of absolute submission. The only One I can truly pledge my allegiance to is the One who has bought me with the price of His own blood, Christ Jesus.

My last problem with the Pledge (for this article at least) is the double meaning of the words “one nation.” Francis Bellamy in his sermons and lectures and Edward Bellamy in his novels and articles described in detail how the middle class could create a planned economy with political, social and economic equality for all. This concept and the relationship between Edward and Francis is illuminated further by noting the 19th-century use of the term “one nation.” The Oxford English Dictionary (Vol.X, 2nd edition) explains the usages of the word “nation.” In a separate entry “two nations” is defined as “...two groups within a given nation divided from each other by marked social inequality; hence one nation, a nation which is not divided by social inequalities” (emphasis in original).

Bellamy also gave an account of what went through his mind as he picked the words of his Pledge: “The true reason for allegiance to the Flag is the ‘republic for which it stands.’ ...And what does that vast thing, the Republic mean? It is the concise political word for the Nation – the One Nation which the Civil War was fought to prove. To make that One Nation idea clear, we must specify that it is indivisible, as Webster and Lincoln used to repeat in their great speeches.”

The concept of a government which cannot be divided is antithetical to Scripture. During the first explicit, recorded civil organization in history, Moses appointed rulers over thousands, hundreds and tens. He divided the civil authority. We would still be part of the British empire if our patriot fathers in 1776 had not properly exercised the principle of division in government (especially when the governing authority is corrupt). We would do well to read the documents and books which these men valued. Patrick Henry would have never espoused a “one nation, indivisible.”

Bellamy does deserve credit for ably employing the catechetical principle which served generations of Presbyterians in Scotland and the United States so well. Inculcating foundational principles in the minds of children is a sound and effective tool of learning – for good or evil. Unfortunately, the Pledge of Allegiance has given us a citizenry which embraces a blind commitment to a national government that continues to chip away at the liberty Americans once enjoyed.

Is it “patriotic,” or “un-patriotic,” to recite the pledge? You tell me. Remember that patriotism is grounded not in the recitation of some dubious pledge, but rather in a vigilant and unwavering commitment to our Constitution, to honour, to duty, and to love of our homeland and liberty.