Look up Francis Bellamy.
Whatever the background of the composer It has since it’s inception taken on a vastly different meaning for the masses (including me). If Beethoven had been a gang raping pedophile it wouldn’t have caused me to be any less enraptured by his music. One thing has nothing to do with the other a non sequitur.
Here’s a man that feels the same way that the vast majority of us do about the pledge. It’s OUR interpretation and I firmly believe it to be the accurate one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJNL_rhGDq4