NBC apparently edited out the phrases “indivisible” and “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance in their opening sequence for the US Open this afternoon.
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The phrase “under God” was added in the late 40s based upon the phrase included in Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address (“that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom”). President Eisenhower signed into law the legislation incorporating the phrase into the Pledge some years later.
Regardless your views on God and religion, it’s silly to assert that religion and complement morality doesn’t play a significant role in America, considering that the Founders wisely thought to make it known that our rights come from a divine Creator, from a source beyond the pay grade of mortal men. It’s what prevents the confiscation of our liberties. The beauty of the founding documents is that even while benefiting from rights set above the meddling hands of men, those same rights include your right not to worship the entity that the Founders recognized as source to those rights. It’s similar to the story of Christ: grace, in this case liberty, is extended to you whether you want it or not – but it is of note that powerful nations who shunned the blessings of God were not long in their power.
What those working to drive out God from America don’t realize is that man is no longer truly free once man is given domain over the basic rights of others. Do they really believe that simple man is a better arbitrator of liberty than God? Man, who has perverted, shamed, and misrepresented his faith by waging war, killing and oppressing his fellow man? Those who wish to “free” America from God want to entrust us to this sort of jurisdiction? They’ll believe in corrupt men who waste their free will over the entity who bestowed upon them free will so that they could truly be free in life and choice?
If NBC or anyone else has a problem with identifying God as the source of liberty in America, their conflict dates back further than when the new Pledge was signed into law in 1954 – it extends back to when a group of free men met in a room and created the basic framework for a free society. If you dispute the source of your rights and are willing to allow your fellow man have domain over you, realize than that the reigns of power change hands and your freedom will never be assured.
(h/t BallStAlum96)
*UPDATE: Readers on Twitter are telling me that one of the anchors has apologized on camera for the omission, saying that he is sorry if anyone was offended. If it was an error, it was made in production, though I’m still curious as to how one can accidentally omit parts of the very short Pledge of Allegiance twice.
*UPDATE: Video of the apology.
DAN HICKS: We began our coverage of this final round just about three hours ago. When we did, it was our intent to begin our coverage of this US Open championship wiht a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship, held in our nation’s capital for the third time. Regrettably, a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance that was in that feature was edited out. It was not done to upset anyone, and we’d like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it.
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