"Under God" Catalyst Dies
Most Americans are surprised to learn that the Pledge of Allegiance did not originally contain the phrase "under God". Like the phrase "In God We Trust" on currency, it was added much later, signed into law by President Eisenhower in 1954, in part due to the urging of Rev. George Docherty, a Presbyterian minister in Washington, D.C.
Docherty passed away Thursday at the age of 97.
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."