In God We Trust

Clark County residents gather in a public hearing room in Vancouver Feb. 25 to talk about whether the motto "In God We Trust" should be displayed in a public hearing room. Councilors voted two to one in favor of the proposal.

(Natalie Behring/AP Photo)

The phrase "In God We Trust," which Clark County leaders voted Tuesday to display inside council chambers, has been pushed into public spaces by the government twice before in American history:

During the Civil War, federal leaders put it on coins. During the Cold war, Congress declared it the national motto. In both cases, religious scholars agree, politicians used the phrase to claim moral superiority over adversaries.

A third government-led movement is afoot, and like those two earlier pushes, scholars say it's directly related to complicated times and a sense that a certain way of life is threatened. In the post-9/11 United States, those threats take multiple forms -- they can be opponents in overseas wars or the growing number of non-Christians in neighborhoods, schools and town hall meetings.

In the last 10 years, both the U.S. House and Senate voted to reaffirm "In God We Trust" as the nation's motto. And according to the nonprofit In God We Trust ~ America, Inc., elected officials in roughly 450 cities and counties have voted to display the phrase in their chambers. The issue is up for debate this month in Klamath County.

"I think people are nervous about pluralism," said Martin Marty, emeritus professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School. "I think this is what the founders were preparing for."

Coins, mottos, government buildings

Though the phrase wasn't adopted as the national motto until 1956, its place on American currency dates back to the Civil War.

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The secretary of the treasury received many letters during the war insisting God be honored on U.S. coins. The first came in November 1861 from a minister in Pennsylvania, who proposed a design with the words "God, Liberty, Law."

"This would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism," Rev. M. R. Watkinson wrote, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. "This would place us openly under the Divine protection we have personally claimed."

Three years later, Congress approved a design with the words "In God We Trust," and the phrase was minted on two-cent coins.

In 1956, during the height of Cold War anxiety, Congress declared "In God We Trust" the national motto. The motto appeared on paper money the following year.

Then came hippies, anti-war protests and the Civil Rights movement. The U.S. Supreme Court prohibited school-sponsored prayer and established a woman's right to decide whether to have an abortion.

"A lot of people thought America was going to hell in a hand basket," said Steven Green, director of the Center for Religion, Law and Democracy at Willamette University.

Reactionary conservative Christianity emerged as a response in the 1980s, Green said. Politically conservative Christians have repeatedly lobbied to display historical documents with overt religious language in public schools and government buildings in an effort to reclaim the country they think they've lost.

In the last 10 years, government officials have taken steps to highlight the motto once again.

Under Republican majorities, the U.S. Senate voted to reaffirm "In God We Trust" as the national motto in 2006 and the House of Representatives did the same in 2011. The House resolution encouraged "the public display of the national motto in all public buildings, public schools, and other government institutions."

Hundreds of cities and towns have done just that in the last 10 years, many at the behest of Jacquie Sullivan, a city councilwoman in Bakersfield, California. Sullivan incorporated the nonprofit In God We Trust ~ America, Inc., in 2004.

The Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting public expressions of faith, is also encouraging displays of "In God We Trust." The director didn't respond to request for comment. Watch the foundation's "Million Window Campaign" video:

Where scholars point to nervousness about pluralism -- and possibly Islamaphobia -- to explain the recent surge, Sullivan cites increased patriotism.

"America was founded on a faith in God," Sullivan said. "The majority of the framers had a strong faith in God."

That's not quite accurate, said Marty, past president of the American Academy of Religion and the American Society of Church History.

Many of the founders were deists, he said, which means they believed a supreme being set the world in motion but, unlike the God of the Bible, hasn't interfered since creation.

"The founding nation was a lot more like Oregon than Louisiana," Marty said. Though the vast majority of Americans identified as Protestant, less than 15 percent of people in the United States in the late 1700s were actually members of a church, he said.

"We belong, and you don't."

Scholars said public use of the motto creates an "us and them" atmosphere.

During the last two Clark County council meetings, non-Christians appealed to the councilors not to exclude them from government by displaying "In God We Trust."

"I do not have a god," Quan Tran, a Vietnamese Buddhist, told the council. "How can my voice be heard fairly and equally?"

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Kurt Johansen, who described himself as a "skeptic," said: "I am a citizen, too. Please don't make this a divisive issue that excludes people like me."

Sullivan and other proponents said encouraging the motto's display isn't about excluding non-Christians or claiming moral superiority. David Madore, chairman of the Clark County board, said it would be "improper and unwise to deny or shun" the national motto Congress has chosen and reaffirmed.

"To be patriotic is love of God and love of country," Sullivan said. It's educational to proudly display the nation's motto, she said, because it's "an important part of our identity."

The phrase is intended to be inspiring, she said.

Proponents often say the motto isn't religious, that "God" is a generic term inclusive of all faiths. Marty doesn't accept that.

"'God is a generic term' is the biggest insult to the God of my faith," said Marty, a retired Lutheran pastor. "God can't be generic. Or, rather, if it is generic, it doesn't mean anything at all."

If the phrase is meaningful, Marty said, it has no place in government buildings. If it's meaningless, it cheapens religion.

"The only purpose of this is to say we belong, and you don't," said Marty. "The key word is 'belong.' We're always inventing the stranger."

-- Melissa Binder

mbinder@oregonian.com

503-294-7656

@binderpdx