©2002 Ed Buckner, Council for Secular Humanism, www.secularhumanism.org
In the midst of the current national furor over the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, many politicians worry aloud that “In God We Trust” on our money might be next to be declared unconstitutional. The courts are unlikely to do that, but they should, for the same reasons that including a religious declaration in the pledge renders it improper to be required for reciting in public schools.
Most American secular humanists are offended by the religious motto printed on our money, but, whatever else it tells us, it says nothing about the intentions of the Founding Fathers, whose choice of a motto was “E Pluribus Unum.” It “was chosen by a committee appointed on July 4, 1776, by the Continental Congress ‘to prepare a device for a Seal of the United States of America.’ Committee member Benjamin Franklin proposed the motto ‘Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God,’ but the phrase ‘e pluribus unum’ was chosen by the committee and officially adopted on June 20, 1782. The phrase—which was well known, having appeared for many years on the cover of the Gentleman’s Magazine—is from ‘Moretum,’ attributed to Vergil.” (Grolier Encyclopedia, Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc., 1999) As my son Michael noted, it is interesting that our allegedly oh-so-pious Christian Founding Fathers had an opportunity to choose a national motto with the word “God” in it and rejected it in favor of a secular one.
The religious (IGWT) motto was not printed on all U.S. money until required under the McCarthy-inspired law enacting the IGWT motto as law in the1950s. The courts have held, by the way, that the motto is constitutional because it is not Christian or even really religious (just ceremonial or some such nonsense; the religious phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance will probably survive on the same illogical grounds, despite the ruling by the 9 Circuit).
“E Pluribus Unum” has appeared on most U.S. coins, beginning in the late1790s. The motto “In God We Trust” did not appear on any U.S. coin until1864, when “Its presence on the new coin was due largely to the increased religious sentiment during the Civil War Crisis,” according to R. S. Yeoman, A Guide Book of United States Coins, 38th ed., Racine, Wisconsin: Western Publishing Co., p. 89.
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OCTOBER 24-27 2013
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