Key concept that people are not getting here.
Flags represent governments. Pledging allegiance to the flag is pledging allegiance to the government, when the fundamental fact of a representative system is that the allegiance is owed the other way around.
The government owes its allegiance to you. NOT vice versa. The Pledge completely inverts the correct and lawful relationship between master (us) and servant (the government) - and this is no accident, given the intent of its author.
No, flags represent countries.
the fundamental fact of a representative system is that the allegiance is owed the other way around.
Hence the term "republic" and the proviso "under God".
The pledge is not to the government. We'll agree to disagree. It is a pledge to what the flag is supposed to represent.
I can foresee the day where giving the pledge - to the flag, not the government - and including the words "under God" would make you a public enemy.
Something to consider. If a Christian can no longer pledge allegiance to the flag, can he in good conscience serve in the military? A few more years going down the road we have gone down, that day may come.
Flags represent COUNTRIES not government. When you see the flags at an Olympics do you think of the government of those countries or what country it represents? So when we pledge to our flag we are pledging to our home country. "...of the United States of America and to the Republic FOR WHICH IT STANDS." !