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Which God? Whose Trust?
by Dr. David Eller
| Recently, the Colorado House approved HB-1128 to mandate display of the motto, "In God We Trust." The bill orders all state institutions and public schools to display a copy of the motto of a specific minimum size, which it says can be donated (since the state has no money for new initiatives like this), and allows citizens to sue if an institution or school refuses. That alone should send shivers down the spines of all Americans -- do we need more suits over issues of belief and conscience? It is no great surprise that Christians were loudly in favor of the measure. It is no great surprise either that the issue was draped in emotion and patriotism; the bill's sponsor branded an objector "unpatriotic" for rejecting this illegal intrusion into private conviction. |
The first thought that comes to mind in this whole affair is, why this and why now? Is there a dearth of patriotism, or of religion, in our country today? This action appears to be a solution in search of a problem. But more fundamentally, there are three reasons why this bill is a bad idea. |
The first is that it is factually wrong, the second is that it is exclusionary and discriminatory, and the third is that it is unconstitutional. |
It is factually wrong because not all of us do trust in God. According to a recent national survey, 14% of Americans gave their religious identification as "none." That means that a substantial minority -- larger than the African-American or Hispanic minorities -- do not trust in God. |
It is exclusionary and discriminatory on this simple basis: which god? Christians do not like to admit it, but "God" is a proper name of their particular god. Not all people who believe in a god believe in or trust that God. The proof of this claim is easy: imagine if the motto used some other proper name of a god, like "In Allah We Trust" or "In Vishnu We Trust" or "In Zeus We Trust." Would the bill's supporters be so eager to support it now? Of course not. They are not promoting "religion," much less patriotism, but their own particular sectarian religion. |
Finally, the bill is unconstitutional because it is not the business of government to tell us what to believe or whom to trust. It was unconstitutional when the motto was introduced in the 1950s (during the "Red Scare," the likes of which we are living through again today), and it is unconstitutional today. The Constitution, in addition to prohibiting government from establishing religion, also includes no motto at all, and the Union survived and thrived for a century and a half without it. The bill, if it becomes law, should and will be challenged, and it should and (hopefully) will be thrown out. |
The last thing this country needs now, or ever, is more divisiveness. The bill's sponsors no doubt think they are advancing unity, but they are only advancing their own point of view. People of other religions, and no religion, do not believe what they believe and do not want what they offer. Let government stick to the business of legislation (there are enough problems there to occupy them for a long time!) and let the public believe or not believe what it wants. |
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