| To me, it's an article of faith that all nations are "under God"[1], no matter how misguided their politics may be. Since this is true of any nation, it is wholly unremarkable, and adds nothing to the meaning to the Pledge.
This is particularly pertinent, because Congress added the seemingly-pious "under God" for an impious reason: so that Americans might convince themselves that we were better, as a nation, than other--expecially the "godless commies". This is quite clear in literature of the time; and it is of course contradictory to the notion that all nations are in fact, inherently "under God" (whether they want to be, or not!).
The author of the pledge, Francis Bellamy, himself a Baptist minister, may well have shared my understanding: he certainly did not appear to be compelled, by his faith, to insert "under God" in the original text. He also had no say in the revision, since he had been dead some twenty-three years, when the addition was made.
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HadEnuf?
- This proceeds by faith and reason from the assertions of Sacred Scripture: that the authority of earthly rulers (and by inference, nations) proceeds from God alone[2]; and that "He"[3] is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.
- Tangent Time!
As a rational anarchist, this nettles me; but but the faith I have been given, by God, admits no escape: so how can anarchy ever come to be?
Sacred Scripture confirms the observable freedom of human will, by the presence of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, in the garden (Eden). It also attests to God's desire to save all willing human beings from destruction. This implies a voluntary relationship, consistent with the notion that God is the Ultimate Rational Agent.
Sacred Scripture also attests, through the story of the fall (among others), that we, as a race, are insane, in our desire to control all we can, and destroy all we can't--including ourselves and each other. Ironically, by seeking to become as gods, ourselves, we became quite unlike any Rational God!
So why would such a God, who desires not to rule by force, grant authority to those who would? Perhaps, in God's definitionally-perfect judgement, we are still too insane, as a race, for anarchy to work, yet. When "He" has restored all who are willing to sanity, will governments finally dissolve, for simple lack of Divine authority? This seems to me the only likely way that peaceful anarchy would ever come to pass as a permanent condition.
- Permit me the luxury of accepting that our language is flawed in its ability to apply pronouns to the Deity. Sacred Scripture clearly states that both male and female are made in the image of God. In scriptural Hebrew, the "male" pronouns are apparently used also to refer to individuals and/or groups of unspecified gender, and are implicitly understood as such. This used to be assumed by many speakers of English, as well, but our culture (at least in the USA) no longer accepts this notion. Therefore, I feel the need to quote gendered pronouns referring to God.
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