* * In God many of us trust
As you’ve probably heard, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors recently voted to decorate the wall of its meeting chamber in the County Government Center in Christiansburg with the words, “In God We Trust,” along with mottoes of Virginia and the County.
This was passed 4-3 with the 4 Republicans voting for it and the 3 Democrats voting against. I personally sided with the Democrats, and I argued my point of opposition at a recent public hearing before the Board. I would have voted against it if I’d been on the Board.
Why would I have been opposed? For this simple reason: it is not inclusive. Let me explain.
From the earliest days of our republic, our national motto was, “E Pluribus Unum” (which means “Out of many, one”) chosen by Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams. Our founders, while many of them were religious people, strictly ordained that the new nation of the United States of America would have a firm wall of separation between church and state. E Pluribus Unum is the very definition of inclusiveness.
Congress put “In God We Trust” on the currency in 1955 and then adopted it as our national motto, replacing the original, during the anti-communist Red scare of that era. Our country never should have done this, as it violates the founding principle of separation of church and state.
Court cases since then have challenged it, but the Supreme Court, in Aronow v. United States in 1970, ruled that it could remain, saying, “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. … While ‘ceremonial’ and ‘patriotic’ may not be particularly apt words to describe the category of the national motto, it is excluded from First Amendment significance because the motto has no theological or ritualistic impact. As stated by the Congressional report, it has ‘spiritual and psychological value’ and ‘inspirational quality.'”
Of course, it only has “spiritual and psychological value” and “inspirational quality” for those who believe. However, by some estimates from the research I’ve done, over forty million moral, ethical, patriotic citizens don’t. Forty million! Belief in God is neither a requirement for citizenry nor for public office.
Furthermore, if the motto has no theological or ritualistic impact, then what’s the point of it?
Our dollar bill has “In God We Trust” on it, but we know it’s not really totally true. So in truth, this line should read, “In God many of us trust.” And of course then it has no meaning whatsoever.
Montgomery County was founded in 1772. For 244 years we’ve gotten along fine without these words on our wall. It seems increasingly to be a penchant for one particular political faction to present solutions to problems that nobody is having, bringing unnecessary controversy, divisiveness and scrutiny, and providing another distraction to the important business our Board members were elected to address.
The proponents of this measure, as I heard at that same public hearing, believe that our decline as a nation, as they perceive it, is a result of the removal of God from our public sphere. This notion took me back to my days at Christiansburg Elementary School when my parents removed me from Bible classes in the public school, arguing that public schools were no place for religious education, particularly since, as is inevitable, the education would be slanted to a particular religion, one that we were not part of. We have great places in our society for the practice of religion, including churches, synagogues, mosques, and in the minds and hearts of all of us. I daresay the number of previous non-believers who have come to believe because “In God We Trust” has been on our currency for the past 60 years is likely zero! There seems to be a population of our neighbors who feel their faith, rather than being a personal matter between them and their Creator, is only real if validated by governmental entities.
In practical terms, my guess is that this action will change nothing about the way our County Board of Supervisors does its business. However, I suppose we can receive some comfort in knowing that if Board members are duly stimulated by the “inspirational quality” of these national motto words on the wall behind them, perhaps they can better achieve the level of honor, integrity, and efficiency we’re now enjoying from our federal government.
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