Brain Trust - Tricia Raymond

Tricia Raymond is an author, speaker, and expert on the history of the Pledge of Allegiance. She joined the Brain Trust to talk about her book, Saving One Nation Under God. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of her interview.

How important is the Pledge of Allegiance?

It's hugely important, because it speaks to the fabric of our nation. 

You were talking about Barack Obama, and how there might be some ideas of his that we can agree with. I definitely agreed with him when he said that words are important, that words have meaning. 

Words do have meaning, and the words in the Pledge of Allegiance have great meaning for our country. Not even just the words, but the history of the words.

Tell us about the backdrop of the Pledge.

We have to go back to the late 1800s. America was a country divided, at each others' throats. The election of 1876 was an election decided by one vote. There was an immigration problem. We were in the second dose of the Industrial Revolution.

At that point, the most popular book in America was Looking Backwards, a book predicting that by 2000, America would be a socialist nation.

People were interested in that happening. You had men and women and children working in factories. We had never had anyone become wealthy other than by inheriting it or taking over another territory. The workers and laborers were treated unjustly.

Carl Marx thought that society would be frozen in time, that we would always have the very wealthy and the very poor. There was no vision of the growing middle class.

This book just captured the interest of America, so much so that the American started clubs to figure out how to pursue this dream of socialism.

That book really started the establishment of the socialist movement in America.

How did the Pledge come about?

Enter James Upham with his idea to put the flag in front of schools all over America, and to have a Pledge to go with the flag.

The Pledge was penned by Francis Bellamy, who called himself a "Christian socialist." There was an awful lot going on in America that was very unjust.

As a Baptist minister, he felt like the gospel was more socialist than it was free market. He propagated the idea that Christianity was a socialist idea, that Jesus was a socialist.

1892 was the 400th anniversary of America's discovery. James Upham's idea was to have these townspeople come together under the flag and celebrate in their own way. So in 1892, approximately 12 million schoolchildren recited the Pledge for the first time.

As the deadline approached for the celebration, Upham still didn't have a Pledge. So, as the story goes, he told Francis Bellamy to go into his office and write something.

After a couple of hours, Francis Bellamy came out with the first draft. "I pledge allegiance to my flag, and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Every other author likes to point out that there was no mention of God in the original Pledge of Allegiance. But in the program that came out, there was a Scripture Reading or Prayer.

How important has the Pledge proved to be in the last hundred years or so?

It has tied us together as a nation. It goes to the fabric of our nation.

If words are important, and they are, then One Nation Under God is an incredible set of four words that helps this nation stay together.

If we take God out of the Pledge, we're basically saying we don't need God anymore. It's up to us whether we become One Nation Under God again.

You can purchase One Nation Under God here.