Starting public meetings with the pledge... and invocation

[question everything]

I have never understood why public meetings, and, even, in some cases professional ones, "have" to start with a pledge.

Is this a form of some insecurity for those who run the meetings? How did this custom even start, anyone knows?

And invocation, there was a long thread here the other day about invocation that did not make any sense to me.

If people seek a spiritual guidance when they sit on a dais, they can do it in private. Why do they need an audience for this?

[RobertSeattle]

1. Demand to say a prayer to the Great Spaghetti Monster God

Or, recite this:

"Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him" - Matthew 6:6-8.

[question everything]

2. Yes, I am familiar with the "praying in the closet"

but am still curious about how the pledge of allegiance got to be a prominent fixture in government meetings.