Pledge Allegiance to What?

In both the long-standing and recently established classical Christian schools there is a desire to recover a classical understanding of patriotism that is both noble and honorable. Modern Western culture, specifically modern American culture, has turned against itself aggressively. Indeed, the classical education renewal movement arose partly in response to that aggressive inward turn. The goal was to destroy things for their own sake, setting in their place all kinds of new narratives focused on culturally diverse storytelling. American history was rewritten by popular movements that sought to tell the story from a different, and usually wholly fabricated, perspective. As the intensity of destruction has increased, American classical Christian schools have pushed back harder, or they seem to be pushing back when they are merely arguing for something increasingly odd, old, and archaic in the best ways. These classical Christian schools wanted to develop classical students, including a proper, classical understanding of patriotism both throughout history in general and in the United States today. This patriotism recognizes and praises the good of their own nation without ignoring the evils it has perpetrated.  

This culture war that classical schools have put themselves into has good intentions and classical roots. However, the intermingling of American ideals and classical ideas can be overstepped in practice. One place this desire for patriotism is frequently exceeded is in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.  

As part of the morning routine, weekly morning assembly, or the opening portion of a class, teachers will have their students stand and recite the Lord’s Prayer or the Apostle’s Creed. They might responsively read a selection from Psalms or Proverbs. Then, they will recite the Pledge of Allegiance and talk about the upcoming events for the week and give any needed reminders. More than innocuous, this habit of formation is improper for classical Christian schools. It is incompatible to say both “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,” and “I pledge allegiance to” something else. You cannot serve two masters.  

Detractors and contrarians will see no conflict. After all, that is splitting hairs. What we really mean when reciting the Pledge is that we seek to form patriotic students, who, of course, intend that Christ would come first in everything, especially in their place as citizens of this great nation.  

However, liturgy doesn’t work that way.  

We cannot caveat daily practices as if it will offset the deeply formative recitation of words of this immense gravity and nature. Indeed, many times I have seen small children at school and at home pray before a meal, “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, and one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Amen.” That seems evidence enough.

If we take words and our faith seriously, we should not ask students to pledge allegiance to something that does not deserve it. This does not mean we should not be patriotic. The two are not mutually exclusive. We can think highly of the nation where we live, love what it is, love what it provides, and still detract places that overstep religious devotion that only God deserves. Most importantly, having students recite the Pledge is asking them to do something that Christians, in a state of grace, cannot do. We can only pledge our allegiance to the nation in so far as it upholds, preserves, and loves the Good. Our patriotism can be a Christian patriotism devoted to Trinitarian moral law, but it cannot be outright allegiance. Reciting the Pledge daily does more formative shaping in a child or teacher’s heart than any number of caveats could. One note about how God comes before the United States will not offset the hundreds of Pledge recitations. We should not set the two in competition—indeed we cannot. 

The practice of daily liturgies, of reciting prayers and creeds, is good. The increased interest in liturgical practices in both American churches and classical Christian schools has and will bear much fruit in the souls of students and parishioners. We should be careful to consider the words and phrases in all our liturgies. What kind of soul will they make? What will they help us to believe not merely intellectually but with the very center of our being? The answers to these questions will be the way we find the path forward for liturgical practices in our schools, aiming to bring souls to love and behold the Beauty of God.