On Flag Day, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Public Law 396, an amendment to the federal Flag Code that officially inserted the clause "under God" into the United States Pledge of Allegiance. This legislative modification altered the 1892 secular text originally composed by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister who intentionally omitted overt religious language to ensure universal civic application. The addition of these two words did not occur in isolation; rather, it represented a calculated deployment of American civil religion at the height of the Cold War. The alteration served as an ideological and rhetorical instrument designed to codify an existential distinction between American democratic capitalism and the state atheism of the Soviet Union.
The institutional momentum behind Public Law 396 was propelled by an alliance of fraternal organizations, religious leaders, and media campaigns. The Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic fraternal service order, initiated the movement in April 1951 by passing a resolution to include "under God" in the pledge recited at their own local assemblies. By 1952, the organization actively petitioned the United States Congress to adopt the amendment nationally. Concurrently, the media empire of William Randolph Hearst launched a nationwide editorial campaign advocating for the change, capitalizing on heightened public anxieties regarding internal subversion and foreign communist expansion.
The decisive catalyst for executive intervention materialized on February 7, 1954, during a sermon delivered at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. The Reverend George M. Docherty preached to a congregation that included President Eisenhower. Docherty argued that the existing Pledge of Allegiance was fundamentally deficient because it failed to articulate the definitive characteristic of the American way of life. He asserted that the original text could easily be recited by schoolchildren in Moscow saluting the Soviet hammer and sickle flag, as it contained no explicit acknowledgement of a supreme being. Docherty argued that American liberty was historically predicated on the philosophical conviction that human rights are derived from a divine creator rather than the state, making the inclusion of religious vocabulary a geopolitical necessity.
Following Docherty’s sermon, Representative Charles Oakman of Michigan introduced House Joint Resolution 371, which, alongside a Senate counterpart championed by Senator Homer Ferguson, advanced rapidly through the 83rd United States Congress. The legislative history reflects a consensus that the amendment was intended to serve as a psychological and spiritual weapon. The Library of Congress issued a formal recommendation supporting the bill, emphasizing that the inclusion of the phrase would strengthen national resolve against the materialistic philosophy of communism.
Upon signing the bill into law on June 14, 1954, President Eisenhower issued a formal statement confirming that millions of school children would daily proclaim the dedication of the nation to the Almighty. Eisenhower framed the law as a vital reaffirmation of the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future, explicitly contrasting it against a global landscape torn by violence and a materialistic philosophy of life. This legislative act inaugurated a broader era of government-sanctioned religious institutionalization; it was followed in 1955 by the congressional mandate to include "In God We Trust" on all United States currency, and its subsequent establishment as the official national motto in 1956.
The long-term historical significance of the 1954 amendment lies in its enduring impact on First Amendment jurisprudence and American cultural discourse. By embedding a theological premise into a standard civic ritual, Public Law 396 effectively blurred the line separating church and state within public education. Beginning in the 1960s, as organized resistance to mandatory prayer in schools intensified, the modified pledge became the subject of protracted constitutional litigation. Subsequent challenges argued that the compulsory recitation of a religious pledge violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. However, federal jurisprudence, including rulings by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, repeatedly preserved the phrasing under the doctrine of ceremonial deism, declaring that such references are patriotic and ceremonial rather than strictly theological. Consequently, the 1954 insertion permanently transformed a nineteenth-century pledge of civic loyalty into a mid-twentieth-century symbol of institutionalized civil religion.
References / More Knowledge:
Britannica ProCon. "U.S. Pledge of Allegiance | Pros, Cons, Debate, Arguments, Religion, and Separation of Church and State." Accessed June 14, 2026.
https://www.britannica.com/procon/US-Pledge-of-Allegiance-debate
EBSCO Research Starters. "Pledge of Allegiance has under God added." Accessed June 14, 2026.
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/pledge-allegiance-has-under-god-added
Eisenhower, Dwight D. "Statement by the President Upon Signing Bill To Include the Words 'Under God' in the Pledge to the Flag." June 14, 1954. The American Presidency Project. Accessed June 14, 2026.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-the-president-upon-signing-bill-include-the-words-under-god-the-pledge-the-flag
National Constitution Center. "The history of legal challenges to the Pledge of Allegiance." Accessed June 14, 2026.
https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-latest-controversy-about-under-god-in-the-pledge-of-allegiance
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. "4 USC 4: Pledge of allegiance to the flag; manner of delivery." United States Code. Accessed June 14, 2026.
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:4%20section:4%20edition:prelim