Reason has the definitive editorial on the pledge of allegiance:
Turns out that the Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by a Christian socialist, Francis Bellamy — first cousin of Edward Looking Backward Bellamy — a hater of capitalism whose sermons about “Jesus the Socialist” got him fired from his Boston church. Turns out that before World War II, many school children recited the Pledge not with their hands over their hearts, but with their right arms outstretched toward the flag in a pose we now associate with fascist storm troopers. Turns out that until the 20th century, the flag was rarely displayed in classrooms at all, and that the Pledge was part of a campaign by the ostensibly anti-capitalist owners of the magazine Youth’s Companion — where the Pledge first appeared — to sell a whole lot of flags to schools.
It goes on to note that a godless Pledge was “good enough for, say, the generation that fought World War II”.
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