“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.”

Everyone in East must have heard this phrase at least once in every day at the beginning of school. It has become a habit, and many students don’t even know or care about those words. But among us, there are many that get offended by this every single day.

Few of us know that every time we are saying the Pledge of Allegiance, we are also praying to the Catholic God. In a recent survey conducted by Pew Forums, it was found that around 70.6 percent of Americans are Christians including Catholics, 5.9 of Americans believe in another religion other than Christianity, and 22.8 were atheists.

That means nearly 89 million people may get offended by the Pledge of Allegiance every day.

Do you think the terms "under God" should be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance?

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The Pledge of Allegiance was first conceived on August of 1892 by Francis Bellamy who wrote:

“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

In 1954, in order to show that the United States was different from the U.S.S.R. by saying that unlike the U.S.S.R, America believed in religion, the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s group, urged President Eisenhower and Congress to include the words “under God” in the pledge. Now 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.”

In June 2004, the U.S Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the words “under God” will be kept in the Pledge when troubled parents sued a school that forced students to say the Pledge. However, the U.S Supreme Court is wrong, and the words should be removed as swiftly as possible.

One reason is that although many schools require you to say the Pledge, many have refused to do so because of their parents and their religious beliefs, however, in other areas, people who refuse to say the Pledge have been bullied. For example, one student from Florida was ridiculed as un-American and removed from his class by a teacher when he refused to recite the pledge.  A student in California had his  purposely lowered and was given detention for omitting the words ‘Under God’.  Another student claims to have been repeatedly harassed for refusing to say the Pledge as a political protest against the situation in Puerto Rico.  She has repeatedly been told that she is disrespecting the U.S.

Though the Supreme Court in 1962 ruled that there will be no mandatory prayer in school, the Pledge directly goes against that law. When the words “under God” were introduced by President Eisenhower, he proclaimed: “millions of school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our Nation and our people to the Almighty.” What Eisenhower was saying was that every day, students would be praying to God.

The most important law that the words “under God” in the pledge of Allegiance also contradict the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment which states that there will be no laws that relates to religion.

The reasons stated above are the many laws that the words “under God” in the Pledge violates and there are many more, thus, the words must be removed.