Should the Pledge of Allegiance be recited in public schools even though it mentions God? Your writing prompt must include two details from the article. Underline your two details. You'll get half of the points if you don't underline your details in this writing prompt. Your writing prompt should be a paragraph or two.

article is on Newsela "Patriotism, politics play a role in pledge's past"
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the
republic, for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all."
The "Pledge of Allegiance" is just 31 words long. Its history, on the other
hand, is quite lengthy. I Pledge Allegiance To A Flag That I Bought
From A Magazine
Francis Bellamy, a Christian minister, penned the patriotic sentence in
1892. He wrote it to mark the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus'
arrival in the Americas. He wrote at the time for a general interest
magazine called the Youth's Companion, which published the pledge to
encourage schoolchildren to recite it each morning. Schools would need to purchase flags for students to do so, according to
pledge expert Shelley Lapkoff. The magazine just happened to sell them.
"It was both to get people to have flags, in keeping with their belief of
patriotism, and then also to help their business," Lapkoff said. "I believe the
reason that flags are so predominant in our culture is because of the
"Pledge of Allegiance" and this mass marketing campaign that went on."
It's still a public-school tradition to say the pledge each morning, though the
accompanying gesture has switched from an outstretched hand to a hand-
over-heart salute, according to Elizabeth Brown, a reference librarian at the
Library of Congress.
"It's just so much a part of the fabric of American society," Brown said. "We
all grew up with it in our schools and our scout meetings and at so many
events."
The pledge itself is more of a patchwork quilt.
Whose Flag? Our Flag!
The words "my flag" initially appeared instead of "flag of the United States,"
Lapkoff said. As a socialist, someone who supports the governmentcontrolling most aspects of life, Bellamy wanted any country to be able to
say the same pledge. But several political organizations at the 1923
National Flag Conference agreed to change the wording in an effort to
boost American patriotism, Lapkoff said. It has been that way since. "Under God," the pledge's most controversial phrase, was added 31 years
later. Tensions at the time were high between the United States and the
Soviet Union, a group of nations that embraced communism. Belief in God
was something communists did not support.
In 1952, a Catholic group called the Knights of Columbus urged Congress to
add "under God" to the pledge. The effort stalled. But the Reverend George
Docherty, a Presbyterian minister, revived the idea when he preached about
it at his D. C. church on February 7, 1954. The special guest that day was
President Dwight Eisenhower. Support grew quickly. That spring, Congress
passed a resolution to add the words. Eisenhower signed it into a law on
June 14, Flag Day. Brown, the librarian, said it's surprising that the original pledge didn't
include the words.
"Bellamy was a minister, which makes you wonder why 'under God' didn't
get in there sooner," she said.
Voluntary Participation According To
Supreme Court Law
That part of the pledge has upset some people. The Constitution's First
Amendment established the separation of church and state. A few people
have argued in court that students should not recite a pledge that mentions
God. But the courts have mostly rejected that idea, because saying the
pledge and saluting the flag is voluntary. (The Supreme Court ruled on that
issue in 1943.)
Lapkoff said she's grateful that the pledge has helped people keep thinking
about what it means to be American.
"I think people have different ideas about patriotism now," she said. "The
'Pledge of Allegiance' has been instrumental to defining freedom of speech."