Dear Future President,

I know there are many major issues/topics in our country to be discussed, and that all are equally vital. It must be difficult seeking to please millions of American citizens everyday with the decisions you make, knowing that not all will be happy. Even so, I would like to bring to your attention an issue that is significant to me, involving our country’s Pledge of Allegiance.

The United States has been brought up with a Christian background. Our nation was first developed by Christians, and then established by Christians. Biblical references can be seen on our money and on our architecture. Prayers are said before civic meetings, witnesses swear to truth on a Bible, and the words “one nation, under God” are written in the country’s Pledge. However, not all are copacetic with this expression. Atheists and humanists believe that the phrase “under God” should be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance. Non Believers hold the idea that these words interfere with the separation of church and state required in the Constitution, by alternating the Pledge into a prayer. This, though, is not the case..

Our founding fathers agreed we all have God-given rights; that these rights must be preserved. ​Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with the phrase "under God," conveys our understanding that the rights our Constitution protects were not created by our government, but fabricated by a higher power. Who would you trust to create just freedoms more?: an all-knowing being, or a group of men who have never run a government before?

The first leaders of this country were not the only influential figures to declare “one nation, under God” to be important. In their most popular speeches, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson all had similar ideas when speaking about equality, rights, and who granted them the freedoms they were hoping to achieve. If numerous American historical figures agreed a united nation under God was important, why are there copious arguments against this fact?

The words “under God” should be kept in the Pledge of Allegiance, not only because of the United States’ Christian history, but also because the phrase represents our nation’s history and what makes us so proud to be American. “Under God” was added to the Pledge in 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The then-President urged for this addition to separate the United States from other Communist countries. Americans love to be unique and separated from other country’s rules and beliefs, therefore, this inclusion was necessary to display from whom we acquire our privileges.

Can you imagine what our country would resemble, if not for our God-given rights? Or if our government had had to decide what we deserved and what we shouldn’t have been allowed? We have God to thank for these freedoms stated in the Constitution, therefore, we should acknowledge that fact by keeping the phrase “under God” in our country’s Pledge of Allegiance.

Respectfully Yours,

Maddie