General Discussion

In February 1954, Eisenhower attended a sermon by Reverend George Docherty at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. that greatly influenced his ideas on the subject.“To omit the words ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance is to omit the definitive factor in the American way of life,” Docherty preached. He discounted the right of atheists to object, arguing that an “atheistic American is a contradiction in terms,” because if “you deny the Christian ethic, you fall short of the American ideal of life.”

With Eisenhower on board, the campaign to adopt the phrase had more momentum. On June 14, Flag Day, (1954) Eisenhower signed a law adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.