THE FATHER’S PLEDGE—LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

 Man Standing On Stage Facing An American Flag · Free Stock Photo (pexels.com)

By Rev. Daniel Fleischer - Posted at Christian News:

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. This pledge dates to 1892. It was first spoken in a school in October of that year. It was officially recognized by the government in 1942. Its original salute was a straight arm thrust mimicked by Adolph Hitler. For obvious reasons, in 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt signed a law that the Pledge “be rendered by standing with the right hand over the heart.” At the request of President Eisenhower, in 1954 congress added “under God.”

Men and women have served in the military to defend the flag, and the principles expressed in the Pledge. Citizens of this country owe those who served, and serve, our highest respect for the service they rendered. We ought to remember with deep appreciation and gratitude. We should not forget those who endured the rigors and dangers of war on land, on the sea, and in the air, countless thousands of whom suffered and still suffer the physical and emotional consequences of war. We honor the countless thousands who gave their life in battle and now lie in military cemeteries in our country and wherever else they lie.

With the passing of time, there is reason to wonder if the ideals of the Pledge of Allegiance which those in the past served to defend and for which they died still resonate in our selfish and divided land. In our deteriorating nation and culture is there still the same respect or “allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands?” Are we still “one nation?” “Under God?” If it ever meant anything, what does “under God” mean today? How in our increasingly physically, morally, politically, divided country, how can the claim be made that we are “indivisible?” A nation that some claim to have been “the best nation on earth,” though by no stretch of the imagination was it ever a perfect nation, is plummeting to moral depths that rivals, if not surpasses, Sodom and Gomorrah which reaped the judgment of the same God under whom we claim to live. The “liberty and justice for all” of the Pledge was and is a well-intended grandiose ideal. When did we achieve it, or when will we attain it in a society where sinful philosophies dominate from the highest seats in government to the streets?

Under the circumstances that prevail in the land, Christians who speak the truth, and witness to their faith are castigated, on one hand, as unpatriotic or, on the other hand, as super patriotic bigots. But that is the manner of the world in which we live–one that speaks of God but does not listen to Him, or heed His call. Wicked King Ahab and his equally wicked wife, Jezebel, blamed Elijah for the troubles in idolatrous Israel, and asked the prophet, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?” Elijah countered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals” (1 King 18:17-18). Fast forward to a.d. 2024.

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