Honestly I think even without the "under God" part I've always thought it was kind of weird and culty.

Your comment reminds me of what one American college student said in public in Italy. It was 2018, Trump was president, I was on a shuttle bus that takes tourists up and down a viewpoint. It was just leaving the viewpoint when it stops, a man hops in and asks in English "Did anyone see an Apple Watch?". "Yeah, right here!". The first person had forgotten it in the bus, and the second person had found it, and returned it to him. The bus drives on, and the second person (American college student in a tour group) says loudly "Boy, he's lucky this bus is full of Americans!".

I wish I was clever enough to come up with something witty, something like "Oh yeah, because everyone else is a thieving bastard, is that what you're saying?".

> "Boy, he's lucky this bus is full of Americans!"

Perhaps only because they have a high likelyhood of speaking English and being able to help him? And sure, many Italians speak English, but if I needed help finding my watch, I like my odds of able to communicate with the Americans over almost any other nationality

Like that college kid, it appears you also suffer under the myth of American superiority...

"If you had a bus full of Japanese people, the watch would have been precisely where you left it!"

It was added to indoctrinate children into viewing the US as a Christian nation in contrast to the "Godless" communists.

So yes, weird an culty by design and intent.

Apparently effective.