This short recitation is packed with meanings...
From the early 1950's, to the present day, the Pledge still has great significance for me personally, and, I hope, for all that read this short article.
First, are we a perfect nation? The answer is an obvious one: no. And the main reason is that many of us have turned our collective backs on the One named in the Pledge: God almighty.
We have also failed Him in other ways, mostly by other laws that violate His Natural Law: ingrained in us as humans.
Unfortunately, we have elected representatives that seem to have forgotten history, and, in so doing, will repeat the mistakes of the past, especially concerning the abuse of power of their office. Perhaps they have forgotten that they work for us, not we for them?
Our very first president, George Washington (by the way, there is strong evidence that he converted to the Catholic Faith just before he died), warned about our then nascent country getting involved in overseas entanglements, and favoring one foreign nation over another.
He was trying to steer us away from wars and rumors of wars, and instead wanted us -- as a nation -- to concentrate on our own freedoms, liberties, but most importantly, our dependence on God. Currently, we are involved in far too many of those foreign entanglements that President Washington warned us about. He was very prophetic in that sense, wasn't he?
Indeed, many of the Founding Fathers were deists, and some were Masons, yet they recognized the Natural Law and the Author of that law...
The following quote is attributed to Thomas Jefferson:
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.” (excerpts are inscribed on the walls of the Jefferson Memorial in the nations capital) [Source: Merrill . D. Peterson, ed., Jefferson Writings, (New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1984), Vol. IV, p. 289. From Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, 1781.]
In many respects, we deserve what we get, and that includes the wrath of that very same God for the injustices we have perpetrated on His most precious gift to us: the gift of new life, as co-creators with Him. As you can see, Jefferson said it much better than I...
Second, but we are also a generous and charitable nation. We still feed a good portion of the world; we provide disaster relief to suffering peoples in many parts of the third-world. In addition, the Statue of Liberty (a gift from France) welcomes those immigrants from shores of countries unable or unwilling to help their own people seeking some measure of freedom and liberty here, in the U.S. of A.
If we love our country, we must Pledge to do what we can to return to the God that made us; to the God that allows us to live in a Republic where we can worship God and serve Him in this life, and be happy with Him in the next, and treating our neighbors with Justice.
Pray for our country...
Gene DeLalla
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