In God (some of us) Trust

The current national motto for the United States is "In God We Trust," which was adopted in 1956, holds sacred status among right-wing Christians and conservatives because it re-enforces their pet notion that America was founded as a "Christian Nation." Despite it's very recent history, many people associate the motto with the founding era of our nation. This view may be incorrect but, hey, what's the big deal? A national motto doesn't have any binding power in our government. Most of the citizens of the United States do believe in god; so why does this abhorrent statement cause me so much personal anger?


It is because of my great respect for the my country of birth and the principles which shaped it's formation that I react emotionally. This subject in particular really cuts to my core values. I think that America is the greatest nation conceived so far. It took humans thousands and thousands of years to develop values like equality, freedom, and representative government. America is revolutionary in that it was the first nation in the world to implement these brand new ideas in a grand experiment. The constitution makes no mention of god and acknowledges that the laws established within are not based on any religious ideology. There is a good reason for this; our government must represent every single citizen equally. You don't get your ten commandments put up at the courthouse because it's my courthouse too! We do not divide; we unite. "In God We Trust" is the exact opposite of all of this. 


Historian Thomas Foster writes about the history of the national motto,


In July 1776, almost immediately after signing the Declaration of Independence, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson were tasked with designing a seal and motto for the new nation. In August John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, that he had proposed the “Choice of Hercules” as the image for the seal. Adams believed that individuals should choose to lead moral personal lives and to devote themselves to civic duty, and he preferred a secular allegory for that moral lesson.

The other two committee members proposed images that drew on Old Testament teachings, but neither shared the beliefs of those today who assert the role of God in our national government. Benjamin Franklin, a deist who did not believe in the divinity of Christ, proposed “Moses lifting up his Wand, and dividing the Red Sea, and Pharaoh, in his Chariot overwhelmed with the Waters.” This motto he believed, captured the principle that “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”

Thomas Jefferson, who later created his own Bible by cutting out all mentions of the miracles of Jesus Christ (as well as his divine birth and resurrection), envisioned “The Children of Israel in the Wilderness, led by a Cloud by day, and a Pillar of Fire by night, and on the other Side Hengist and Horsa, the Saxon Chiefs, from whom We claim the Honour of being descended and whose Political Principles and Form of Government We have assumed.” Of all of his accomplishments, Jefferson selected just three for his tombstone, one of which was writing the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which established a separation of church and state.

The three men worked in consultation with an artist, Eugène Pierre Du Simitière, who rejected all of the ideas of the three committee members. His own first attempt was also rejected by Congress. It would take years and several more committees before Congress would approve the final design, still in use today, of an American bald eagle clutching thirteen arrows in one talon and an olive branch in the other.

Only the motto “E Pluribus Unum” (“from many, one”) survived from the committee on which Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin had served. All had agreed on that motto from the beginning.

In adopting "In God We Trust" as the national motto for the United States, the 1956 congress chose the most incredibly ass-backwards slogan imaginable. They did this to divide US (good Christian Americans) from THEM (evil godless communists) The original national motto, e pluribus unum, meaning "out of many, one," very accurately reflects the central reason our government was so world changing. While the previous motto expresses the spirit of our national values by seeking to unite those that would otherwise be divided, "In God We Trust" explicitly excludes. There are many Americans that don't believe in god and also some that believe in lots of gods. Do us non-believers just have to live with the fact that our national motto clearly does not include us? Are we not also citizens deserving of equal representation in their government? Non-believers are part of the "We," therefore, the motto is not only stupid but also completely false.

A country that cherishes freedom of thought and expression should not have a divisive and partisan statement of falsehood as it's motto. What if the motto was "In Odin We Trust?" Christians, would you feel like the government with this motto represented you equally? This is America; we all trust in different things, but we agree to live and work together as neighbors under secular law. We need to change to motto back to e pluribus unum; a creed that reflects true American values, and not paranoid theocratic posturing.