(We forward the followingtribute from my friend, Dr. Gary Cass, founder of the Christian Anti-defamation Commission. This article underscores the incredible impact that Christian Pastors can make and have made in our nation's character. Thank you Dr. Cass; you, like Rev. George Docherty, are making a tremendous difference.Ed Moore, Prayer Force One)

"Under God" Patriot Pastor Dies at 97

Reverend George M. Docherty, the person primarily responsible for having the phrase "under God" added to The Pledge of Allegiance, died this Thanksgiving at the age 97.

Docherty succeeded the legendary Rev. Peter Marshall and served as the pastor for 26 years of the historic New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C., just a few blocks from the White House. Abraham Lincoln routinely attended church there while president.

In 1952 Docherty delivered a sermon on the subject of honoring God in the Pledge. Born in Scotland, he immigrated to America and was shocked when he heard his son reciting the Pledge. He wondered why it did not speak of God. In his native Scotland the people would say "God save our gracious queen" and "God save our gracious King."

It was customary for presidents to attend New York Avenue Presbyterian Church on "Lincoln Sunday," the Sunday nearest Lincoln's birthday, and to sit in the pew once rented by Lincoln. When President Dwight Eisenhower attended on Lincoln Sunday, February 7, 1954, Docherty delivered his sermon calling for the addition of "under God" to the Pledge.

"There is a sense in which history is continually repeating itself. The issues we face today are precisely the issues Lincoln spent his life seeking to resolve. In his day the issue was sparked by Negro slavery. Today it is sparked by militantly atheistic communism that has already enslaved 800 million of the peoples of the earth and now menaces the rest of the Free World.

In this land, there is 'neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female,' for we are one nation indivisible under God, and humbly as God has given us the light we seek liberty and justice for all.

Secularists are spiritual parasites... living upon the accumulated spiritual capital of a Judeo-Christian civilization, and at the same time, deny the God who revealed the divine principles upon which the ethics of this Country grow. The dilemma of the secular[ist] is quite simple. He cannot deny the Christian revelation and logically live by the Christian ethic. And if he denies the Christian ethic, he falls short of American ideal of life."

The very next day a bill was drafted to incorporate "under God" in the Pledge by Representative Charles Oakman of Michigan and a companion bill was sent to the Senate. Eisenhower signed the bill most appropriately on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.

Reverend Docherty's legacy is profound. His leadership has helped to remind generations that the foundational truths of this nation and its liberty are built upon faith in the true and living God. For that we can honestly count him as one of the nation's great patriot pastors and a true hero of the faith.

Rev. Docherty and President Eisenhower, Sunday, February 7, 1954
when the Pledge Sermon was preached. Click on the photo to read the entire "Under God" sermon.