There seems to be a whole lot of angst swirling around the Pledge of Allegiance lately. What many people don’t know is just how young the pledge itself is. It was written in 1892 by a Baptist minister named Francis Bellamy who was subsequently forced out of his ministry because of his socialist beliefs.
At the time he wrote the pledge, Bellamy was the chairman of a committee of state superintendents in the National Education Association. He left the word equality out of his pledge, despite the fact that it is one of three ideals this country represents – liberty,