Pastor who helped get ‘under God’ in Pledge dies
ALEXANDRIA, Pa. (AP) — The Rev. George M. Docherty, credited with helping to push Congress to insert the phrase “under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance, has died at 97.
Docherty died on Thanksgiving at his home in central Pennsylvania, according to his wife, Sue Docherty.
She said her husband of 36 years had been in failing health for about three years.
“George said he was going to live to be a hundred and he was determined,” she said in a telephone interview Saturday. “It’s amazing that he was with us this long.”
Docherty, then pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, just blocks from the White House, gave a sermon in 1952 saying the pledge should acknowledge God.
Obviously an idea that resonated at the time [we were deeply engaged in the Cold War with the godless commies]. Docherty mentions the idea in a sermon knowing that Eisenhower was going to be in attendance and it’s signed into law months later.