Knights Of Columbus Santa Maria Council #105
The Knights of Columbus and the Pledge of Allegiance
The Knights of Columbus played a large role in the addition of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. When the Pledge was originally written by Francis Bellamy in 1892, it originally read:
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
After a proclamation by President Benjamin Harrison, the Pledge was first used in public schools on October 12, 1892, during Columbus Day observances organized to coincide with the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.
In 1923 the National Flag Conference called for the words "my Flag" to be changed to "the Flag of the United States", for the benefit of new immigrants, and the words "of America" were added a year later. The United States Congress officially recognized the Pledge as the official national pledge on June 22, 1942. At a meeting on February 12, 1948, Lincoln's Birthday, Louis A. Bowman, Chaplain of the Illinois Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, led the Society in swearing the Pledge with two words added, "under God." Bowman repeated his revised version of the Pledge at subsequent meetings.
Three years later, in 1951, the Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization, also began including the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. 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 adding the words "under God" after the words "one nation." Over the next two years, the idea spread throughout Knights of Columbus organizations nationwide. At the annual meeting on August 21, 1952, the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus 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 failed attempts to prompt Congress to adopt the Knights of Columbus’ policy for the entire nation.
On February 7, 1954, President Eisenhower, who had been baptized a Presbyterian just a year before, attended a service honoring Abraham Lincoln at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. At that service, Rev. George Docherty delivered a sermon based on the Gettysburg Address arguing that the nations’ might not lay in arms but its spirit and higher purpose. Docherty noted that the Pledge's sentiments could be those of any nation, that "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 United States apart from other nations. President Eisenhower said that he agreed with the sermon. In the following weeks, the news spread, and public opinion grew. Three days later, Senator Homer Ferguson, (R-MI), sponsored a bill in Congress to add “under God” to the Pledge; which was approved as a joint resolution June 8, 1954, and signed into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954 by President Eisenhower.
If the Pledge's historical pattern repeats, its words will be modified during this decade. Some prolife advocates recite the following slightly revised Pledge: '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, born and unborn.'
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