New billboards put God back into pledge

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — “One nation under God.” That’s the message on a new billboard in Wilmington which is reviving the debate over the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s a billboard battle that’s become heated over the last month. It all started when NC Secular posted a billboard which read simply “One nation indivisible.” Now, faith groups are joining together to state their case for God’s place in the pledge.

“I found it disturbing, because to me faith is indispensable to this country,” said Bob French, who’s restaurant French’s Classic Burgers is near where NC Secular’s billboard was until the weekend.

The group We Still Pray put up a billboard recently, and it won’t be the last. Many faith groups, like Myrtle Grove Presbyterian, have banded together to get out their message.

“We believe in free speech, obviously, and people ought to have the right to say what they want to say, but nonetheless I believe as they do that it was time for a little loving push back and put some of our own billboards, so that’s what we’re doing,” said Rev. Steve Mattis, Senior Pastor at Myrtle Grove Presbyterian.

The church’s billboard carrying a similar message will appear in the coming weeks just across the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge leaving Wilmington. For now, advocates for God’s place in the pledge are pleased.

Westillpray.com has also posted billboards in Asheville, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greensboro and Raleigh in direct response to NC Secular’s boards, which were put up to advocate removing “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.