Flag Day commemorates the day the Second Continental Congress officially adopted the first American flag. Other flags have been in the news a lot lately, so hopefully this holiday will succeed in refocusing us on symbols that genuinely unite the nation. But the flag itself is not the only element of our national symbology worth remembering today. Sixty-nine years ago, President Eisenhower officially added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
In doing so, Eisenhower noted that it was important to remember the “dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty,” which provides “our country’s true meaning.”
It is worth asking why Eisenhower and the 83rd Congress found it necessary to publicly reaffirm their commitment to orienting the nation towards God. Eisenhower argued that it was appropriate in light of the “violence and brutality” with which he was intimately familiar from commanding Allied forces in the Second World War, as well as the masses “deadened in both mind and soul by a materialistic philosophy of life.”
Perhaps the former is not as impactful for most Americans today as it was then (although “the prospect of atomic war” still rears its ugly head). Our battle with materialism, however, is now more intimate than ever. The consumerism that was taking root in the Fifties now defines our economic interactions. And the doctrine that man is nothing more than mere matter, then trumpeted by the Soviets, now finds a home here.
Whether men seek to understand themselves by looking up towards heaven or down at the dust from which they came has profound consequences. American greatness has always been driven by our belief that we are called to more than merely fulfilling our individual interests, an idea that was always rooted in our belief in a higher power.
No government could compel genuine religious belief if it wanted to, nor should it try. But neither can a nation refrain from deciding whether to acknowledge the presence of God and his ultimate authority over its success or failure. With America once more in a “somber setting,” we ought “constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource.” That starts with remembering that we are indeed one nation under God.