ALEXANDRIA, Pa. – The Rev. George M. Docherty, credited with helping to push Congress to insert the phrase "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance, has died at 97.
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(Photo: AP Images / Gene J. Puskar, File)In this Feb. 4, 2004, file photo, Rev. George M. Docherty and his wife, Sue, look at a display of photos celebrating the retired minister's life, at Huntingdon Presbyterian Church in Huntingdon, Pa. Docherty, whose sermon before President Dwight Eisenhower helped push Congress to insert the words 'under God' into the Pledge of Allegiance, has died. He was 97.
Docherty died on Thanksgiving at his home in central Pennsylvania, according to his wife, Sue Docherty.
She said her husband of 36 years had been in failing health for about three years.
"George said he was going to live to be a hundred and he was determined," she said in a telephone interview Saturday. "It's amazing that he was with us this long."
Docherty, then pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, just blocks from the White House, gave a sermon in 1952 saying the pledge should acknowledge God.
He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and was unfamiliar with the pledge until he heard it recited by his 7-year-old son, Garth.
"I didn't know that the Pledge of Allegiance was, and he recited it, 'one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,'" he recalled in an interview with The Associated Press in 2004. "I came from Scotland, where we said 'God save our gracious queen,' 'God save our gracious king.' Here was the Pledge of Allegiance, and God wasn't in it at all."
There was little effect from that initial sermon, but he delivered it again on Feb. 7, 1954, after learning that President Dwight Eisenhower would be at the church.
The next day, Rep. Charles G. Oakman, R-Mich., introduced a bill to add the phrase "under God" to the pledge, and a companion bill was introduced in the Senate. Eisenhower signed the law on Flag Day that year.
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If we were to edit out all the chaff about flags, republics and nations under God indivisible, we'd be left with "I pledge allegiance to liberty and justice for all."
But who in America would support anything as radical and un-Christian as that?
frankhou77 has the right idea, but the pledge does not need to be updated. It was fine before. We just need to restore it to its original democratic wording.
This country is founded on a constitution, not religion. God is not in the constitution (there is a difference between the constitution and the declaration of independence.) God was not in the pledge for most of our history. God is a personal matter. This was the intention of the founding fathers, even the religious ones.
Weekenderman:
You said it yourself. "After all, there is no other nation on earth where people of ALL FAITHS are welcome to live and worship as they can in the United States." What about people who are not religious? That's 14% of us who are apparently NOT welcome anymore. Bush Sr. said that atheists were not citizens because we are "one nation under God." That is not tolerance. That is the sort of bigotry that this unconstitutional addition to the pledge perpetuates.
Adding "under God" to the Pledge was not showing favoritism, Frankie. It was simply acknowledging that our nation owes thanks to Jehovah for our ability to live in a great nations such as ours. After all, there is no other nation on earth where people of ALL FAITHS are welcome to live and worship as they can in the United States.
The pledge does need to be updated to cover all individuals.
The pledge should not be about favoritism and should be broad, there is millions of Americans who do not believe in a God.
Those are millions of Americans who do not have a pledge to our country.
Amen and amen. The whole Church and Body of Christ working together for a single purpose. To Him who sits upon the Throne of heaven, be all honor and glory.
This man was a Saint! God bless him!
Also, the Knights of Columbus helped with this addition to the Pledge as well. Catholics and Protestants working together for the Glory of Our God!