Editing Pledge of Allegiance (section)

== Changes ==
[[File:Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Plaque and Pledge to the Flag - Lansing, MI.jpg|thumb|A plaque in Lansing, Michigan, dated 1918, listing the Balch Pledge, which was used parallel to the Bellamy Pledge until the National Flag Conference in 1923]]
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:

{{Blockquote|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.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title = Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=QMgWAAAAYAAJ|publisher = National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.|date = January 1, 1906}}</ref>}}

In subsequent publications of the Daughters of the American Revolution, such as in 1915's "Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Continental Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution" and 1916's annual "National Report," the previous pledge (adjusted to read "I pledge my head, my hand, my heart..."), listed as official in 1906, is now categorized as "Old Pledge" with Bellamy's version under the heading "New Pledge."<ref>{{Cite book|title = Congressional Serial Set|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RGBUAAAAIAAJ|publisher = U.S. Government Printing Office|date = January 1, 1917}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Proceedings of the ... Continental Congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=l2UUAAAAYAAJ|publisher = The Congress.|date = January 1, 1915}}</ref> The "Old Pledge" was still taken in other organizations until the National Flag Conference established uniform flag procedures in 1923.

In 1923, the National Flag Conference called for the words "my Flag" to be changed to "the Flag of the United States," so that foreign-born people would not confuse loyalties between their birth countries and the US.<ref name="our_flag"> {{Citation | last = United States Congressional Joint Committee on Printing | author-link = United States Congressional Joint Committee on Printing | title=Our Flag | date = July 18, 2006 | pages = 45 | publisher = US Government Printing Office | url = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CDOC-109sdoc18/pdf/CDOC-109sdoc18.pdf | isbn= 978-0-16-076598-8 }}</ref> 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:<ref name="PL_77-623">[[s:Public Law 77-623|Pub.L. 77-623, Chap. 435]], 56 Stat. 377, H.J.Res. 303, enacted June 22, 1942.</ref>

{{Blockquote|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.}}

=== Addition of "under God" ===
{{Redirect|Under God|the book by Toby Mac and Michael Tait|Under God (book)}}
Louis Albert Bowman, an attorney from Illinois, was the first to suggest the addition of "under God" to the pledge. The National Society of the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]] gave him an Award of Merit as the originator of this idea.<ref name="autogenerated2007">{{cite book |title=The Pledge of Allegiance: A Revised History and Analysis, 1892–2007 |last=Baer |first=John W. |year=2007 |publisher=Free State Press |location=Annapolis, MD }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Religion and the Law in America: An Encyclopedia of Personal Belief |last=Merriman |first=Scott A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l_8VFygyaDYC&q=under+god |year=2007
|publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-85109-863-7}} p. 110.</ref> He spent his adult life in the Chicago area and was chaplain of the Illinois Society of the [[Sons of the American Revolution]]. At a meeting on February 12, 1948,<ref name="autogenerated2007" /> he led the society in reciting the pledge with the two words "under God" added. He said that the words came from Lincoln's [[Gettysburg Address]]. Although [[Gettysburg Address#Usage of "under God"|not all manuscript versions of the Gettysburg Address contain the words "under God"]], all the reporters' transcripts of the speech as delivered do, as perhaps Lincoln may have deviated from his prepared text and inserted the phrase when he said "that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom."<ref>In the 18th and 19th centuries, the phrase "under God" indicated secondary thanks or permission. In modern usage, the Gettysburg Address might read "that the nation shall, God willing, have a new birth of freedom." See {{cite journal |last=O'Malley |first=Brian P. |title=Under God: Understanding its Revolutionary Usage |url=https://allthingsliberty.com/2019/07/under-god-understanding-its-revolutionary-usage/ |journal=Journal of the American Revolution |date=July 22, 2019 |access-date=July 23, 2019 |archive-date=July 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190723155049/https://allthingsliberty.com/2019/07/under-god-understanding-its-revolutionary-usage/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Bowman repeated his revised version of the Pledge at other meetings.<ref name="autogenerated2007" />

During the [[Cold War]] era, many Americans wanted to distinguish the United States from the [[state atheism]] promoted by [[Communist state|communist countries]], a view that led to support for the words "under God" to be added to the Pledge of Allegiance.<ref name="Kruse2015">{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/396365659/how-one-nation-didnt-become-under-god-until-the-50s-religious-revival|title=How 'One Nation' Didn't Become 'Under God' Until The '50s Religious Revival|publisher=NPR|first=Kevin M.|last=Kruse|date=March 30, 2015|access-date=April 4, 2018|archive-date=March 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308062853/https://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/396365659/how-one-nation-didnt-become-under-god-until-the-50s-religious-revival|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="StoeltingRuth2013">{{cite book |author1=Carrie Beth Stoelting, Stacie Ruth |title=Unite the USA |date=2013 |publisher=[[WestBow Press]] |isbn=9781490813547 |language=en |quote=The introduction of "under God" in the 1950s was done during the Cold War, as a way to differentiate the U.S. from the concept of Communist state atheism.}}</ref>

In 1951, the [[Knights of Columbus]], the world's largest [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[fraternal and service organizations|fraternal service organization]], also began including the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.<ref name="kocsheet">{{cite web |url=http://www.kofc.org/un/en/resources/communications/pledgeAllegiance.pdf |title=Knights of Columbus Fact Sheet |access-date=June 16, 2011 |publisher=Knights of Columbus |archive-date=June 23, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623132456/http://www.kofc.org/un/en/resources/communications/pledgeAllegiance.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In New York City, on April 30, 1951, the board of directors of the Knights of Columbus adopted a resolution to amend the text of their Pledge of Allegiance at the opening of each of the meetings of the 800 Fourth Degree Assemblies of the Knights of Columbus by addition of the words "under God" after the words "one nation." Over the next two years, the idea spread throughout Knights of Columbus organizations nationwide. On August 21, 1952, the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus at its annual meeting 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. The National Fraternal Congress meeting in Boston on September 24, 1952, adopted a similar resolution upon the recommendation of its president, Supreme Knight [[Luke E. Hart]]. 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 were eventually a success.<ref name="kofc.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.kofc.org/un/en/resources/communications/pledgeAllegiance.pdf |title=How the words "Under God" came to be added to the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag |publisher=Knights of Columbus |access-date=October 23, 2013 |archive-date=September 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120910165044/http://www.kofc.org/un/en/resources/communications/pledgeAllegiance.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

At the suggestion of a correspondent, Representative [[Louis C. Rabaut]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]–[[Michigan|MI]]), sponsored a resolution to add the words "under God" to the Pledge in 1953.<ref>Broadway, Bill. "[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/07/06/how-under-god-got-in-there/2a0fca85-524e-4063-8a58-4c31db084932/ How 'Under God' Got in There] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210020538/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/07/06/how-under-god-got-in-there/2a0fca85-524e-4063-8a58-4c31db084932/ |date=February 10, 2018 }}," ''The Washington Post,'' July 6, 2002. Retrieved February 4, 2018.</ref>
[[File:Georgeandike.jpg|thumb|[[George MacPherson Docherty]] (left) and President Eisenhower (second from left) on the morning of February 7, 1954, at the [[New York Avenue Presbyterian Church]]]]
Before February 1954, no endeavor to get the pledge officially amended had succeeded. The final successful push came from [[George MacPherson Docherty]]. Some American presidents honored Lincoln's birthday by attending services at the church Lincoln attended, [[New York Avenue Presbyterian Church]] by sitting in Lincoln's pew on the Sunday nearest February 12. On February 7, 1954, with [[President Dwight D. Eisenhower]] sitting in Lincoln's pew, Docherty, the church's pastor, delivered a sermon based on the Gettysburg Address entitled "A New Birth of Freedom." He argued that the nation's might lay not in arms but rather in its spirit and higher purpose. He noted that the Pledge's sentiments could be those of any nation: "There was something missing in the pledge, and that which was missing was the characteristic and definitive factor in the American way of life." He cited Lincoln's words "under God" as defining words that set the US apart from other nations.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}}

President Eisenhower had been baptized a [[Presbyterian]] very recently, just a year before. He responded enthusiastically to Docherty in a conversation following the service. Eisenhower acted on his suggestion the next day and on February 8, 1954, Rep. [[Charles Oakman]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]–[[Michigan|MI]]), introduced a bill to that effect. [[83rd United States Congress|Congress]] passed the necessary legislation and Eisenhower signed the bill into law on [[Flag Day (United States)|Flag Day]], June 14, 1954.<ref name="PL_83-396" /> Eisenhower said:

{{Blockquote|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/god-in-the-white-house/ |title=God In America: God in the White House |publisher=PBS |access-date=September 8, 2017 |archive-date=September 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909010013/https://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/god-in-the-white-house/ |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

The phrase "under God" was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance on June 14, 1954, by a [[Joint Resolution]] of Congress amending §&nbsp;4 of the [[United States Flag Code|Flag Code]] enacted in 1942.<ref name="PL_83-396">[[s:Public Law 83-396|Pub.L. 83-396, Chap. 297]], 68 Stat. 249, H.J.Res. 243, enacted June 14, 1954.</ref>

On October 6, 1954, the National Executive Committee of the American Legion adopted a resolution, first approved by the Illinois American Legion Convention in August 1954, which formally recognized the Knights of Columbus for having initiated and brought forward the amendment to the Pledge of Allegiance.<ref name="kofc.org" />