under church: the logic of faith

book tv just televised marc leepson speaking a couple months ago on his new book, flag: an american biography.

in response to a question on how the cold war affected how we treat the flag, he briefly mentioned how "under god" got into the pledge of allegiance.

he said attempts—at least some of them motivated by a desire to stress america's contrast to "godless communism"—had been made to add the phrase, starting soon after ww2, but they failed till president eisenhower join the fray in 1954.

it seems ike was at church one sunday, and in the sermon the minister commented on the absence of god in the pledge, saying something like: russian children could say this pledge.

so ike got congress to add the words that divided "one nation indivisible."

i can't help wondering why—even without god—russian kids would say "i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america...."