"On God and the Pledge"

A detailed Summary of "On God and the Pledge"

If you have ever gone to school, then you have most likely recited the "Pledge of Allegiance" numerous times. Did you ever notice the part of it that said "under God?" The Pledge was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Christian socialist; it was to be said in the public schools around the daily flag raising. In 1954, the words "under God" were added to the pledge to make it not only a patriotic oath but also a public prayer. This paper is concerning the arguments over the most recent change of the Pledge, which took out the phrase "under God." The paper will be discussing two articles opposing one another over the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. They are entitled Under God Divides the Indivisible and One, Nation Many Gods.

My first argument is from the magazine Humanist, titled Under God Divides the Indivisible, written by Barbara Dority. She is pleased with the change of the Pledge. She believes it was a courageous ruling. Dority believes that the government was commending religion, sending messages to the unbelievers that they were outcasts, and that the one's who did believe were superior members of the community. The main point Dority is trying to make is that the people have a right to choose their own rel

These two articles are tied together in a variety of ways, they aim towards all people, use examples in their articles and both use a range of rhetorical strategies to back up their arguments. In both articles the main aim is to the people who believe for or against their argument. In Dority's article she aims towards those against the Ninth Circuit Appeal, trying to explain to them why the words "under God" needed to be taken out of the Pledge. She wants them to understand how it wasn't right, and that it really went against all people's emotions and feelings toward their religion. Young aims towards both groups of people. She wants the people to see why it was ridiculous to take the phrase out of the pledge and she aims towards the believers, wanting them to fight for what they believe.

Now, an explanation of the rhetorical arguments used in the second article. The article by Young, fighting against the Ninth Circuit of Appeals also uses all forms of rhetorical strategies to make clearer her argument. First ethos, using credibility and evidence, states that the U.S. Court of Appeals said that "under God" is establishing religion and is unconstitutional. Next it uses logos showing clear organization of several forms of evidence to back up the argument that the words under God should not have been taken out of the Pledge. A few examples of the evidence are; "the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has inflicted on this nation what will conclude in a greater injury than that caused by the terrorists on 9/11," said in San Francisco and "people who don't believe is not a big deal because they are a small minority of Americans," made by Bill O'Reilly. Young used these two forms of evidence to back up her arguments of keeping the phrase. Finally, she used pathos to appeal to the people's emotions and prejudices, by saying that the students have a right of their own to talk about their faith, and while in school they ca

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Approximate Word count = 1295
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics