The version of the Pledge of Allegiance that was initially adopted by the United States Congress was:
I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.
This was written by socialist and Baptist minister Francis Bellamy for a children's magazine in 1892, it was officially sanctioned for use in public schools by President Benjamin Harrison the following day.
Other than the altering to have the salute "to the Flag of the United States of America" in 1923, the pledge, for 62 years had
no religious connotations at all!
Then in 1954, the Catholic fraternity,
Knights of Columbus spearheaded a successful campaign to add "under God" to the pledge as it would help deviate the United States from the godless Soviet Union.
So, of course, it would be alright to remove it (I'm not specifically referring to the recent ruckus) once the Cold War was over right? Of course not, because it was yet another "attack" even though the motivation for the insert was to "acknowledge the dependence of our people and our Government upon the moral directions of the Creator." (154 U.S.C.A.A.N 2339, 2340).
Of course, that little history lesson seems a little bit off-topic, but I feel that it applies to the issue with the seal of the County of Los Angeles. People have done things that were socially acceptable at the time of their creation...the county in it's defense initially stated that the crosses represented the historical significance of Catholicism in the region's history, the problem is...that although that may certainly be true, (And I may personally think that the new seal is about as ugly as a monkey's butt, which I'm sure many would agree). at the time (circa.1950s) it was okay to put Catholic symbols on official seals and whatnot. However, as the United States continues to grow more diverse we must understand that we cannot put a religion on seals without pissing off someone (Maybe because of oppression or whatever). It is not really an issue of the separation of church and state, in my opinion, but it needs to be an acceptance and understanding that even though Christian/Catholic based religions are the major religion in the United States, it's not going to stay that way if we value ourselves as the "melting pot" of the world.
I mean there are campaigns that are trying to get the King James Bible into public schools, I'd go for it
if the schools were willing to also introduce text from various religions to complement it. Which I seriously doubt is the point of many of these campaigns.
In the end, unless all religions and science merge into one, I seriously doubt anything but the destruction of humanity will stop this bitter feuding.
