In September 2013 and again in May 2014, courts rejected lawsuits brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) to remove the motto “In God We Trust” from U.S. currency. The courts said the phrase does not impose a substantial burden on unbelievers and does not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. Plaintiffs, represented by lawyer and atheist Michael Newdow, had argued that they were “forced to proselytize -- by an Act of Congress -- for a deity they don’t believe in whenever they handle money.”

U.S. District Judge Harold Baer, Jr., wrote in his 2013 ruling that “the Supreme Court has repeatedly assumed the motto’s secular purpose and effect.” Similarly the 3-judge panel in 2014 insisted the motto on U.S. currency does “not have a religious purpose or advance religion.”

But juxtaposed to these legal arguments touting the motto’s secular nature is a much different sentiment voiced by supporters of House Concurrent Resolution 13, the 2011 measure to reaffirm “In God We Trust” as the national motto. (Even though a previous act of Congress in 2002 had already done essentially the same thing, as did a Senate measure in 2006.) For example, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) argued in favor of H. Cos. Res. 13 thus: “Is God God? Or is man God? In God do we trust, or in man do we trust?” Clearly endorsing a religious God, Franks concluded it is time “to reaffirm that God is God and in God do we trust.”

Although Resolution 13 passed 396-9 with 2 abstentions, 5 representatives filed dissenting views, saying the motto “injects the hand of government into the private religious lives of Americans” and thus “[transgresses] the clear line between government and religion.” They argued the Establishment Clause prohibits the government from preferring religion over non-religion. They further argued the Resolution fails a court-precedent “coercion test” because it encourages the display of the motto in public schools and other government institutions, thus subjecting all individuals who enter such buildings to religious orthodoxy and more specifically a governmental preference for monotheism over other religions.

There’s also the historical fact the motto “In God We Trust” originated, via placement on coins, as a way to increase specifically religious sentiments during the Civil War, prompted by a clergyman’s claim that the War itself was the result of insufficient religious fervor in the country. It was not actually declared the national motto until 1956, in the same Cold War atmosphere that also led to adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance to distinguish the U.S. from godless communism.

So the motto hardly seems to be innocuously secular as the courts have claimed. FFRF co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor also noted it’s not an accurate motto. “To be accurate,” she said, “it would have to say, ‘In God Some of Us Trust,’ and wouldn’t that be silly?” She pointed out that non-believers are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population by religious affiliation, at nearly 20 percent.“

“It [the motto] creates the dangerous misperception that our republic is based on a god,” she continued, “when in fact it is based on an entirely secular Constitution. These symbolic violations [damage] respect for the constitutional principle of separation between religion and government.”

by Ken Burrows

Published February 18 with the quotation below:

"In God We Trust. I don't believe it would sound any better if it were true." --- Mark Twain