# Adults reciting the Pledge of Allegiance **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 7, 2019, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286 "2019-08-07T01:32:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/21 "2019-08-07T05:08:41Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Do a prayer, but a prayer that has nothing to do with the actual tasks at hand, such as a prayer for burial of the dead (earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust). Give them Roger Zelazny’s agnostic prayer: > [@](#): > > Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to insure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/22 "2019-08-07T05:49:35Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Where on earth do you live where adults feel the need to proclaim their loyalty to the US of A? Is this like a deep south thing? The U.S. Senate begins every day’s session with a prayer and the Pledge. It’s hardly childish. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/23 "2019-08-07T05:59:43Z")
The Pledge for the Senate, OK, it’s a bit silly to me that one would feel the need to renew one’s vows every day (at least they don’t invite the whole family), but I don’t think the prayer is appropriate in any context other than a specific religious meeting. Meals by families in which everybody belongs to the same religion and that religion blesses meals count as a religious meeting; a bunch of people who may or may not have religion, and among whom those who do have religion will belong to different ones, meeting to handle state business in a place that’s supposed to have separation of church and state, do not. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/24 "2019-08-07T06:04:34Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > The U.S. Senate begins every day’s session with a prayer and the Pledge. It’s hardly childish. Do you say the pledge of allegiance at breakfast? If not, why not? ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/25 "2019-08-07T06:17:48Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > The U.S. Senate begins every day’s session with a prayer and the Pledge. It’s hardly childish. It’s very childish indeed for a condo board to equate themselves with something like the U.S. Senate. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/26 "2019-08-07T06:38:56Z")
Nm ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/27 "2019-08-07T07:13:52Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > The U.S. Senate begins every day’s session with a prayer and the Pledge. It’s hardly childish. When we consider some of the behaviour and attitudes seen in the US Senate, the fact that something happens in the US Senate is hardly, in itself, a compelling argument that that thing is not childish. In any event there is an obvious distinction. The US Senate disharges a public function for the benefit of the republic. In that context, a formal affirmation of allegiance to the republic has a certain logic. A group of property owners meeting to manage their property to advance their personal and private advantage is not performing a public function or doing anything on behalf of the republic, and their political opinions and allegiances are wholly irrelevant to the business at hand. ---
**Author:** ![road\_lobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@road\_lobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/road_lobo)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/28 "2019-08-07T07:47:40Z")
It’s always important to perpetuate monotheist supremacy. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/29 "2019-08-07T10:47:15Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Do a prayer, but a prayer that has nothing to do with the actual tasks at hand, such as a prayer for burial of the dead (earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust). Growing up, my buddy ('s parents) had a framed picture in the basement - it was a cavedude in a wife-beater, dragging a club. Below it was the text, “Yeah though I walk thru the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I fear no evil, fore I am the meanest son of a bitch in the valley.” To this day, I can’t go to a funeral & not mumble the alternate words & chuckle. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/30 "2019-08-07T11:46:06Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Where on earth do you live where adults feel the need to proclaim their loyalty to the US of A? Is this like a deep south thing? They do it here at our civic association meetings in my neighborhood in Chicago, as well, so, no, not a “Deep South” thing. More an old tradition thing. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/31 "2019-08-07T11:56:53Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > They do it here at our civic association meetings in my neighborhood in Chicago, as well, so, no, not a “Deep South” thing. More an old tradition thing. Don’t you have any foreign neighbours? It feels rather exclusionary to non-US citizens. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/32 "2019-08-07T12:04:06Z")
> [@DaveRaver](#): > > At the beginning of every meeting at my condo, we are asked to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. And everyone just goes along with it? I’ve never owned a condo, likely never would, and if I did I’d probably find an excuse to avoid “meetings”. But if I ever attended a meeting where I was asked to recite a pledge, I’d LOL and walk out shaking my head. Imagining “group meetings begun with a pledge recitation” brings horrible images to mind. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/33 "2019-08-07T12:04:14Z")
I have a fundamental dislike and distrust of loyalty oaths of any kind. One’s actions should speak for one’s beliefs. If I feel compelled to tell you how patriotic or religious I am, if I need to say that I’m a great parent or a stellar employee, what is the likelihood that I am what I say I am? Seems to me the worst traitor would be standing the tallest and reciting the pledge the loudest, just to prove he/she isn’t a traitor. Or maybe I’m just too cynical. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/34 "2019-08-07T12:18:00Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Don’t you have any foreign neighbours? It feels rather exclusionary to non-US citizens. Very many. I’ve always found the Pledge a bit weird, but it seems few give it a thought around here. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/35 "2019-08-07T12:33:08Z")
Speaking as a non-US person : what, and I can’t stress this enough, the \*fuck \*?! ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/36 "2019-08-07T12:37:10Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Speaking as a non-US person : what, and I can’t stress this enough, the \*fuck \*?! Seconded. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/37 "2019-08-07T12:45:26Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Seconded. Yes, thirded. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/38 "2019-08-07T12:50:22Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > I bet you can[see](http://tattletailzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/bellamy-salute.jpeg) why. Amazing how blond most of those kids are… ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/39 "2019-08-07T12:52:03Z")
At the beginning of MY condo meetings, we go around one by one asking all of the board members if they are now, or ever have been, a member of the communist party. Then we waterboard everyone to make sure they’re not lying. It takes up most of the meeting but you can never be too patriotic. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2019, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286/40 "2019-08-07T12:55:42Z")
When I lived in Texas, it seems that, most gatherings had an invocation of some sort. Usually it was a minister from a local church who said too much while trying to sound profound. I would normally just stare at the floor and bite my lip during these things. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adults-reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance/838286.md?page=3)