[.ca] With God On Our Side: One Man's War Against an ... (ISBN 0312361432)

Military Socialism, Christian Socialism or both?:
With God on Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military is a great book by Michael L. Weinstein. One criticism is that he uses the F-word to label the political dogma and the behavior of religious oppressors in the military, and in describing how they use patriotism, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Star Spangled Banner in their misdeeds. He seems to be unaware of the S-word: Christian Socialism and Military Socialism. The Pledge of Allegiance was written (1892) by Francis Bellamy, a self-proclaimed Christian Socialist, who touted Military Socialism. Francis Bellamy did not use the other "ism" (the F-word) as a self-description. Francis used the S-word (socialism) as a self-description. The book could use some updating with more historical information about the topic addressed. For example, the Pledge was the origin of the stiff-arm salute that was adopted later by the National Socialist German Workers Party. An early salute for the Pledge of Allegiance was the straight-arm salute. The Pledge began with a military salute that was then extended out toward the flag. In practice the second gesture was performed palm down. Francis Bellamy was the author of the Pledge (1892) and cousin to Edward Bellamy, author of an international bestseller that launched the nationalism movement. Edward's book was translated into every major language, including German. Francis and Edward were both self-proclaimed socialists in the Nationalism movement and they promoted military socialism. They wanted government to take over all schools and impose robotic chanting to flags. When the government granted their wish, government schools imposed segregation by law and taught racism as official policy. That behavior even outlasted German National Socialism. The Pledge's early right-arm salute was not an ancient Roman salute, and the 'ancient Roman salute' myth came from the Pledge. In addition to the notorious salute, American socialists (e.g. Edward Bellamy teamed with the Theosophical Society) also bear some blame for the notorious symbol usd by the National Socialist German Workers Party on its flag. While Edward and the Theosophical Society worked together, the same symbol was used by the Society. It was used as alphabetical symbolism for socialism, and adopted later by German socialists as their flag symbol. Although an ancient symbol, it was altered for use as overlapping S-letters for 'socialism.' It was deliberately turned 45 degrees counter clockwise and always oriented in the S-direction. Similar alphabetic symbolism is still visible as Volkswagen logos. People were persecuted for refusing to perform robotic chanting to the national flag at the same time in the USA and Germany (to the American flag, and to the German symbol flag). Most of the above are modern discoveries (do a web search for "stop the pledge") by a different writer, Dr. Rex Curry (America's leading authority on the Pledge of Allegiance, and the author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets").