How I Say the Pledge of Allegiance

As a Christian living in the United States, I love my country and seek the best for it. I gladly join my fellow citizens in expressing my commitment to its well-being.  Because of my Christian commitments and beliefs, however, I mentally emend the text of the Pledge of Allegiance as I recite it. I cannot offer any nation or other human entity my unqualified allegiance.

* * *

I pledge a qualified, subordinate and temporal allegiance
to the Flag of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands;
one nation among the family of nations;
under God, not divine, less than God;
indivisible, but not eternal;
fallible, and subject to God’s final judgment,
with aspirations of liberty and justice for all,

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