One of the perennial lies that goes around in "Christian" e-mails, and appears on "Christian" blogs, is that THEY (the federal government, the American Atheists association, liberals, President Obama, the A.C.L.U., etc.) are trying to rob America of its "Christian nation" standing, by doing away with our national motto, "In God We Trust." In 2010, this took the form of a letter from the Congressional Prayer Caucus correcting President Obama when he referred to "E Pluribus Unum" as America's national motto. It's worth sifting through this controversy to find out what truth it contains.
I've independently researched the "national motto" question over several years. Snopes.com's research on the 2010 incident summarizes the facts well:
"In 1782, the U.S. Continental Congress proposed the use of the Latin phrase E pluribus unum (commonly translated as "out of many, one" or "one from many") on the Great Seal of the United States as a reference to the original thirteen American colonies' having joined together as a single united entity. The phrase is still a component of the Seal of the United States and has appeared on U.S. coinage since 1795.
"However, although E pluribus unum was long considered the de facto national motto of the United States, it was never officially established as such by legislation. The only legislatively established national motto the United States has ever had is "In God We Trust," a phrase which first appeared on U.S. coinage in 1864 (and is now a part of all U.S. currency and coinage) and which was adopted as the official U.S. national motto through a law passed by Congress in 1956." (http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/mottoletter.asp#hRDuUHaYoRJFjkJj.99)
Those are the simple facts. But the controversy is (of course) political: and that always involves shaping facts to a partisan purpose. The Congressmen's 2010 letter is an example. Suffice it to say that the "Congressional Prayer Caucus" is an almost-exclusively Republican "conservative" outfit. Some might consider this proof that Republican "conservatives" are the only Christians in Congress. I find rather that the "Prayer Caucus" mostly functions to manipulate "Christian issues" to "conservative" purposes.
The signators of the 2010 letter (one of whom I know personally, having been part of the same congregation in the 1980s) had the obvious purpose of dinging President Obama...dinging him especially as "anti-Christian" for failing to cite "In God We Trust" as the national motto. Interestingly, Snopes' research mentions that other presidents: including the "conservative" demi-god, Ronald Reagan: have referred publicly to "E Pluribus Unum" as our "national motto."
But in point of one fact, "conservatives" are correct: "In God We Trust" is America's official "national motto," so designated by Congress in 1956.
"In God We Trust" has a long association with American government. It's first appearance was in the fourth stanza of "The Star Spangled Banner" in 1814: "And this be our motto, in God is our trust." The phrase was first added to American coins during the Civil War when a Pennsylvania minister wrote Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Chase, that in that crisis our coinage should acknowledge God. The minister suggested the mottoes "PERPETUAL UNION" and "GOD, LIBERTY, LAW." At Chase' order, the Director of the Mint proposed "OUR COUNTRY, OUR GOD" or "GOD, OUR TRUST." Chase re-worked the latter to "IN GOD WE TRUST," which first appeared on the two-cent coin of 1864. (http://www.treasury.gov/about/education/Pages/in-god-we-trust.aspx) In all these permutations, the motto was a not-so-subtle claim that God favored the Union side in the war.
The motto did not appear continuously on all coins and bills until 1938, by act of Congress. In 1956 it became our official national motto. The first of several constitutional challenges to the motto, all unsuccessful, was Aronow v. United States in 1970. In that case a federal Court of Appeals held that "It is quite obvious that the national motto and the slogan on coinage and currency 'In God We Trust' has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion. Its use is of patriotic or ceremonial character and bears no true resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of a religious exercise." In 2004, the Supreme Court decision in Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow cited the Aronow ruling in finding the pledge of allegiance' phrase "under God" and other such governmental and patriotic references to God are not unconstitutional, "... hav[ing] lost through rote repetition any significant religious content...", and are only expressions of "...ceremonial deism."
More salient to these phrases' use as "Christian" shibboleths was the public protest after "In God We Trust" was omitted from the $10 and $20 gold coins of 1907. President Theodore Roosevelt publicly opposed restoring the motto to coins, writing that "To put such a motto on coins or to use it in any kindred manner, not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege.” (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9406E2D8103EE033A25757C1A9679D946697D6CF). In 1908 Congress nonetheless legislated that the motto should thereafter appear on all gold and silver coins: in 1938, that it should appear on all U.S. coins and bills. And in 1956, that "In God We Trust" was the official national motto of the United States.
Just two years earlier, Congress had added the words "under God" to the pledge of allegiance. I'm old enough that my life spans the before and after of that official piety. The summer of 1953 was my first year in Vacation Bible School at Kensington Avenue Baptist Church in Kansas City, where my folks were members. My mother saved my certificate of attendance that year. The certificate (printed by the official Southern Baptist publishing house) was imprinted with the pledges to the Bible, to the Christian flag, and "to the United States Flag." The latter (see the image below) lacks the words "under God"...which only became part of the pledge of allegiance the next year.
Granted I'm a bit on the old side now: I can't help viewing any event that took place during my lifetime as "recent." By that criteria, America's official "godliness" is neither actually "Christian" (according to a "conservative" Supreme Court's decision), nor long-established: yet those are the operative assumptions on which "conservatives" vaunt themselves as defenders of "America's Godly Heritage" (as the false "historian" David Barton formulates the "Christian conservative" Big Lie).
God has certainly blessed America with some men after His Own Heart in our national history: even a few in our political history. We have had times when the Spirit fired the people of our nation to levels of fervent worship much greater than today; and times of disbelief much greater than today's. But always God has kept for Himself a remnant for His Own possession, as He promises. He does so even now among us, and does always, in all nations where His Name is worshipped. And He upholds His Own always, by His sovereign mercy over all who love Him ! Praise HIM !!
But those spiritual realities have no real bearing on America's official national "godliness." That shibboleth has always been what it is now, a creature of political pretense, in the spirit of proud hypocrisy.
Wikipedia notes, for example, that "The 1956 [national motto] law was one of several legislative actions Congress took to differentiate the United States from atheistic Communism." As in the Civil War's coinage, we still want to believe, and assert, that God is on our side. (Lincoln aptly skewered that prideful attitude, when he told a delegation of clergymen that he thought it more important to be sure we were on God's side.)
The 1954 legislation adding "under God" to the pledge of allegiance was another such case. The author of the legislation, Michigan Congressman Louis C. Rabaut, argued for its passage in Congress, that "... the unbridgeable gap between America and Communist Russia is a belief in Almighty God. From the root of atheism stems the evil weed of communism and its branches of materialism and political dictatorship." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_C._Rabaut)
Interestingly, Rabaut was a Catholic, and a Democrat. On either count, today's "Christian conservatives" would doubtless find him persona non grata.
Even more interesting, the original pledge of allegiance, containing no reference to God, was written by a Baptist minister, Francis Bellamy, in 1892. The absence of God in his formulation may seem surprising, but Bellamy's account of the pledge's origin (entered in The Congressional Record in 1945) emphasizes that its purpose was entirely patriotic:
"At the beginning of the nineties patriotism and national feeling was at a low ebb. The patriotic ardor of the Civil War was an old story ... The time was ripe for a reawakening of simple Americanism and the leaders in the new movement rightly felt that patriotic education should begin in the public schools."
(A Brief Synopsis of the Story of the Origin of the Pledge taken from the Detailed Narrative by Francis Bellamy, Author of the Pledge. Congressional Record 91 Cong. Rec. (1945) House. pp. 5510–5511.)
The "new movement" of which Bellamy was a leader was "Christian socialism." Given those origins, I'm surprised our current "conservatives" so vehemently embrace the pledge (George Bush Sr. campaigned for president on little else than being "for" the pledge of allegiance !). But ignorance of facts is a great shield against reality. Even were they aware of those facts, I'm sure "conservatives" would be able to deny it was true. Like all factionalists, they love truth only so far as it corresponds to their own worldview: in which "socialists" are America's greatest enemy, not "patriots."
But the only question that matters a whit in it all: what says God, Whom "conservatives" make the adjunct of their political posturing ?
God hates hypocrites. He hates most fiercely those who practice hypocrisy in HIS Name.
May God uphold His Name in power ! May He glorify Himself in the righteous judgement Jesus pronounced repeatedly, "Woe to you,...hypocrites !" (Matthew 23)
All praise to You, our King, for YOUR righteous rule and YOUR righteous judgement on evil-doers !!
Amen !!
