Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Judge says "In God We Trust" is secular

From Yahoo

A U.S. district court judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought by a California atheist against the U.S. government for its use of the phrase "In God We Trust" on its coins and currency.

...

Judge Frank Damrell of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California held in his opinion that "In God We Trust" is secular in nature and use, and its appearance on coins and currency does not show government coercion on behalf of monotheism.
Judge Damrell apparently does not understand the definition of the word "secular". There is nothing secular about the phrase "In God We Trust." It is a prayer, plain and simple. It began appearing on our coins during the Civil War, with the hopes that "trusting" in God would preserve the Union. The phrase became a national motto in the 50's along with "under God" being added to the Pledge of Allegiance to separate us from the godless Communists. President Eisenhower stated that belief in God was our most essential weapon in combatting communism. God on our coins and in the Pledge was a charm meant to ward off the evils of communism, not to mention a McCarthyist means by which "patriotic" Americans who believed in God were distinguished from atheist communists.

That's what the phrase on the coins means. It means we pray to God that the United States will be preserved from harm. It also means that those who do not "trust" in God are not Americans. It means that those who do not "trust" in God are enemies of the country.

Just ask Ann Coulter.

1 comment:

The Phytophactor said...

A Lutheran minister made the same argument in our local newspaper, that "under God" and "in God we trust" were secular in use.

In reply I argued that if so, he would have no objection to one little change, the addition of an s, that would make the phrases acceptable to people like me: "under gods" and "in gods we trust". And of course the repsonses were most predictable fully demonstrating that in the minds of most Americans those phrases are not only religious they are Christian.