I for one always get a little lump in my throat and stand very straight and reverent when the flag is hoisted or passes in review at a parade.  I did not have to go into battle to defend our flag, but I was in the service of my country and would have, if called on to do so.  When I see someone burning or defacing the flag,  I just take it for granted that they are ignorant and stupid and they are fatherless children drifting in and out of consciousness from their drug or alcohol stupor. 

Every nation has a flag or ensign that they fly to show who they are and that the soil under that flag will be defended at all cost if need be.  Even the most docile country will not stand by and let anyone defile their flag.  So why does the United States?  We are the only country in the world who lets its citizens have speech so free as to render its flag a piece of rubbish in the middle of Washington DC.

 So what makes a little phrase like “under God ” cause such a fervor.  I don’t think it mentions whose God it is.  I don’t think it singles God out to be democrat or republican. It doesn’t say God is Baptist, Protestant or Catholic, Jew or Muslim, Hindu or Buddha.  It does say however that we exist here “under God ”.   

I was surprised to find out that our founding fathers did not have a pledge of allegiance.  Of course, I think they took it for granted that we would revere the flag and hold it high forever.  The pledge was first published in the Youth Companion magazine in 1892 and first used in public schools on Columbus Day of 1892. It went as follow:

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

Eisenhower who was well aquatinted with war and its suffering and dying, had seen the flag of the United States at its highest and lowest.  He had seen the bodies of Americans carried from the battle fields and had seen the flag raised over captured capitals and people.  Eisenhower knew that without the help of a mightier force than himself he would fail. Talk to Tony Robbins and any other motivational speaker or any great salesman and they will tell you, “to be successful, you must align yourself with something greater than yourself.”   

If you read the Mayflower compact, you will find it.  If you read the constitution, you will see it.  If you read the federalist papers, you will find it. Everyone of our founding fathers relied on something bigger than themselves.  They all relied on God.  Did they specify whether it was a Baptist God or a Jewish God or a Muslim God? 

The United States is as great as it is because we asked God to be our protector.  Our strength and our aid.  Now we tell Him He is not welcome in our schools, though Satan worship, drugs and condoms are.  We tell Him, our politicians have all the power they need and that He is an embarrassment to our capital, though cheating and lying and every known vice under the sun is welcome.  Most of all He has been relegated to sit on the back row of our churches while so called men of the cloth spew man made religious beliefs which deny the existence of the very God they say they worship. 

It is time the people of the United States spoke up.  It is time for the so called majority to take back the country we live in.  Starting with the flag, the ensign which has rallied the troops to a thousand battles.  That piece of cloth that has the blood of Democrats and Republicans, of Baptist and Protestant, of Jew and Muslim, of Hindu and Buddha and Atheist.  The young men of our country who gave the last full measure to make sure that we would continue “under God”. 

When our founding fathers started this country they decided the only way to get the country off on a sound footing was to invoke and plea that God would watch over this great nation.  As we grew and took on more territory to the west, we got away from this God whom we had said we would rely so greatly.  Our godlessness showed when the west was so wild that every man slept with his gun at the ready. We continued until the Civil War started. Then we pleaded once again for God to help us re-unify the country and to heal our land. 

After the war we expanded farther west and the farther west we went the farther from God we drifted. Then World War 1 began and we hurried back under the protective umbrella of God and once again God found favor and brought peace to the world.  In the Twenties  we prospered and the more we prospered the farther we drifted again from the protective  space under God. The great depression began and the land would not yield its crops. It got so bad that the bad guys with their Tommy guns and bootleg gangs were afraid to drift into the streets.   

World War 11 came and again we pleaded for the help from a source and under God we not only won but became the mightiest country on the face of the earth.  We stayed that way until after the Korean War.  Then somewhere along the way the 60’s thing happened and once again we out grew any need for a power greater than ourselves. 

Now, suddenly, after September 11, we see the need to rally under the flag, to huddle under God.   I think if you look closely you see a pattern here.  When we are under God we enjoy a peace and protection even though there is a great threat on us by people who wish us all dead.   We are flying the flag with a fervor not seen since World War 11.   When we are not under God  we have no peace, power or prosperity. Now comes some judge in California not worth his spit, trying to take the very thing that brings peace and prosperity to this country.