Does the Pledge of Allegiance establish a religion  --the worship of government?

Public comments about the pledge court case show that few people know that the pledge was written in 1892 by a self-proclaimed socialist in the U.S. nationalist movement, to promote socialism in the most socialistic institution -government schools.

Few people know that the original salute to the flag was like the Nazi salute and that "Nazi" means "National Socialist German Workers' Party."

The pledge of allegiance was authored by the self-proclaimed socialist Francis Bellamy. Bellamy was the first cousin of the socialist Edward Bellamy. Edward Bellamy's futuristic novel, "Looking Backward," was published in 1888, and described life in the year 2000.  It described a totalitarian society where all private transactions are outlawed, where the government places all men in an "industrial army" and where the monolithic government school system is operated specifically as part of the "industrial army" system.  Of course, all of the preceding was portrayed as a dandy utopia just as it was portrayed by so many apologists for the industrial armies of socialist hell-holes worldwide.    

The book spawned a socialist movement in the U.S. known as "Nationalism," with the Nationalist magazine, and "Nationalist Clubs" whose members wanted the federal government to nationalize most of the American economy. Francis Bellamy was a member of this movement and a vice president of its socialist auxiliary group.

Francis Bellamy had often lectured on the so-called "virtues of socialism and the evils of capitalism." In 1891, he was forced to resign from his church because of his socialist activities and sermons. He then joined the staff of the magazine "Youth's Companion" and wrote the pledge of allegiance, first published therein.  

In the original articles about the Pledge of Allegiance,  Francis Bellamy promotes government schools and snipes at the many better alternatives, and urges that education should come only from government.  It is consistent with the government school monopoly in the book "Looking Backward" and the "industrial army" promoted by the Bellamys. 

Bellamy lived during the time when schools were becoming socialized heavily in the United States.  When the U.S. Constitution was written, children received private educations (schools are not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution).

Edward Bellamy's book was translated into 20 foreign languages.  It was popular among the elite in pre-revolutionary Russia, and was even read by Lenin's wife. John Dewey and the historian Charles Beard intended to praise the book when they stated that it was matched in influence only by Das Kapital.

Francis Bellamy lived from 1855 to1931. Edward Bellamy lived from 1850-1898. Edward Bellamy was spared witnessing the horrors that his socialism caused to the rest of humanity. Francis Bellamy lived in the U.S. during the first 14 years of mass atrocities under the industrial army of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  Francis Bellamy might not have known about the horrors of his socialist ideas in the U.S.S.R. at that time.  Francis Bellamy lived long enough to see a similar salute and philosophy espoused by the industrial army of the National Socialist German Workers' Party.  If Edward Bellamy's fictional character had awakened in the year 2000 he would have learned that since 1887 Bellamy's philosophy had set and was holding all the worst records for shortages, poverty, misery, starvation, atrocities and mass slaughter.

According to R. J. Rummel's article in the Encyclopedia of Genocide (1999) the worst trio of socialist atrocities (see http://rexcurry.net/socialists.jpg) occurred under the industrial armies of: (1) the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 62 million deaths, 1917-'87; (2) People's Republic of China, 35 million, 1949-'87; (3) Germany under the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, 21 million, 1933-'45.  

After the National Socialist German Workers' Party tried to impose socialism on the world, many U.S. citizens were disturbed by the Pledge's similar salute and that it was written by a National Socialist in the U.S.   Although the salute changed, the pledge remained the same.  

There is something more disturbing than all of the above: Most children are never told any of the preceding history in government schools, even though
there is a totalitarian-style robotic recital of the pledge as a collective by children in government schools en masse on cue from the government every single day.

It is a wonder why anyone recites the Pledge of Allegiance.  It is probably because of rampant ignorance about the Pledge's origin and history.

No one would trust the government to tell you the truth if it ran the newspapers. Why would anyone expect the government to tell children the truth in government schools? As Libertarians say: The separation of school and state is as important as the separation of church and state. And that is the real solution to the pledge debate and all other school issues: remove government from education.