(great) grandma and "under God/god": a new angle

I've often observed that the "under God/god" on our money and in our Pledge of Allegiance is, for most people, the god of American civil religion (rather the Triune God of the Bible).

Here's a letter to the editor of the C-J by Bob Moore that revealed a new angle to that observation:

The recent article about the battle of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance brought a smile to my well-lived, well-lined, octogenarian face.

As a child and during 20 years in the Navy, I proudly said the Pledge. When reciting it I never uttered the “under God” addition and still don't. However, I'm not upset when others do.

Bob doesn't make this explicit. But if you do the math, you'll notice that he may be making a reference to the date when the phrase debuted on the money and in the Pledge: the 1950s. In other words, Bob didn't say it (or see it on the money) for most of those years-- because it wasn't there.

In other words, it's interesting that "(great) grandma and grandpa" were part of a generation that did not have that as part of their culture.

Of course, that said, their generation were among the chief catalysts behind the political calculus which led to the decision. So...

Anyway, it just struck me as interesting that my Grandma would not have put that in "her pledge" until she was 40 or so...