https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bellamy
Francis Julius Bellamy (May 18, 1855 – August 28, 1931) was an American Christian socialist Baptist minister and author.[1] He is best known for writing the original version of the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892.
It’s absolutely crazy how new a lot of American cultural norms are, given that they all sound so goddamn old.
Checks notes … Most of America following the civil war was horrified and broken and considered the confederacy a stain on their history. Those statues and names were mostly put up a century after the civil war, after everyone who could remember it was dead. They were specifically constructed as a middle finger / scare tactic by angry white people who were worried that their hegemony was threatened by the Civil Rights Movement.
Checks notes… The authors of the constitution - including the practicing christians! - were adamant that an officially recognized state religion would be an existential threat to democracy. Any elevation of any religion in government is a death sentence to freedom and liberty. The addition of “God” to our Pledge and our currency was also only 70 years ago, and was also a scare tactic by angry white people who were worried that their hegemony was threatened by other ethnicities and cultures.