'Under God' Rev. Dead at 97
The Pledge of Allegiance was written by, of course, a Socialist. But the good kind! Francis Bellamy was a late-19th century Baptist Utopian Socialist, not a Stalinist or one of those white kids with dreadlocks. Naturally his Pledge was different from the one we know: it doesn't mention God! Luckily Congress fixed that in 1954, adding the words "under God" right in the middle, disrupting the flow of the whole thing. The Commie-hating clergyman responsible for adding God to our pledge just died!
The Reverend George M. Docherty (pictured above with President Eisenhower) went on a tear in the '50s, talking about how the pledge needed to mention God every chance he got. One day the president showed up! The rest is history.
Docherty delivered a sermon saying the pledge should acknowledge God in 1952 at Washington's New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, just blocks from the White House.
On Feb. 7, 1954, he delivered it again after learning that President Dwight Eisenhower would be at the church.
Congress inserted the words a few months later.
Docherty died this week, on Thanksgiving. It's too bad he won't live to see President Barack Obama add "Allahu Akbar" to the end of his famous pledge.