In God We Trust: Historical and Definitional Issues

Dr. J.'s BF Commentary No. 187: In God We Trust: Historical and Definitional Issues

According to Politics of Nov. 1(1) "The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday [Nov. 1] passed, 396-9, a concurrent resolution reaffirming 'In God We Trust' as the national motto.

The resolution was introduced by Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), co-chairman of the Congressional Prayer Caucus. It is a concurrent resolution because the Senate already passed a similar resolution in 2006 for the 50th anniversary of "In God We Trust" as the nation's motto. Resolutions do not carry the force of law and do not require the president's signature. 'Tomorrow, the House of Representatives will have the same opportunity to reaffirm our national motto and directly confront a disturbing trend of inaccuracies and omissions, misunderstandings of church and state, rogue court challenges, and efforts to remove God from the public domain by unelected bureaucrats. As our nation faces challenging times, it is appropriate for Members of Congress and our nation – like our predecessors – to firmly declare our trust in God, believing that it will sustain us for generations to come,' Forbes said in a statement Monday." Forbes also said "without God, there could be no American form of government. Nor, an American way of life" (2).

Now there are a series of questions that could be raised about Rep. Forbes' statement. For example, let us for a moment take a look at its history. According to Wikipedia (3), "The phrase was conceived by Salmon P. Chase, the U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Abraham Lincoln.[1] Chase wrote in an 1861 letter to James Pollock, then Director of the Mint in Philadelphia, that no 'nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.'[3] Aspirations for the motto arose surrounding the trauma and heightened religious sentiment that existed furing the Civil War. 'Both [sides] read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other,' echoed President Lincoln during his Second Inaugural Address, as the Civil War continued. [4] The Reveren M.R. Watkinson, in a letter dated 13 November 1861, petitioned the Treasury Department to add a statement recognizing 'Almight God in some form in our coins.'[5] However Treasury Secretary Chasedid not sumit the motto with the words 'In God We Trust' until December 9, 1863.[1]

First one might point out the nation did just fine, except for the scourge of slavery and the every-increasing genocide against the Native Americans, without "In God We Trust" on our coinage, from the time of the Founding until 1861. Indeed, unless one is mistaken, we did have an "American form of government and an American way of life" during that period. Then there is the problem that President Lincoln raised that in the Civil War both sides prayed to the same God. One side won and one side lost (at least for the time-being). One wonders just which side God was on in that case, and how could the other side have any trust at all in him, her or it.

Then, it wasn't until 1954 that the phrase was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance (which of course has no official standing itself), and until 1956 that the Congress made it into the national motto. One must wonder just how the nation got along not "under God," for all of the years preceding. Then there is the futher little matter of the Constitution, which, one should think, defines what the "American form of government" is. The word "God" does not appear in it, Article VI prohibits any religious test for candidates for office and there is the First Amendment's prohibition of the establishment of religion by Congress. Ah well, these are such troublesome details.

Now let us turn briefly to the matter of definitions. One might spend some time discussing exactly what is meant by "in" when it comes to "God," which, for example, might or might not, be corporeal. Then one might concern oneself with the matter of "trust." For example, given what Lincoln himself had to say about the matter, during the Civil War, as noted above, as the fortunes of the two sides waxed and waned, why should either of them have trusted "God?" For that matter why should the victims of Katrina, the Great Depression or the current one (whatever you want to call it), 9/11, the Holocaust, Curtis LeMay's firestorm raid of Tokyo on March 9, 1945 (120,000 dead), or the opponents of the major US polticial party that routinely labels them as "Godless" do so either.

But the most important definitional problems concern "God" and "We." When it comes to religions the United States is a polyglot nation. Just whose "God" are we talking about? Within Christianity alone there are many different concepts of God, very tripartite, not-so tripartite, uni-partite. A God who/which appears before some Christians embodied in a wafer and wine, not so for others. And so on and so forth. Then there are the other two main religions in the U.S., Judaism, and Islam. Each has its several denominations, and each of those has a rather different concept of God. (For Secular Humanistic Jews, of which I am one, there is no concept of "God" at all). Then there is a major world religion, Hinduism, which counts about 900,000,000 adherents, with 1.5 million of them in the U.S.(4). Its concept of God/Gods pre-dates in form that of the three major monotheistic religions. Who is indeen to say that there is not a group of Gods, and that perhaps, if there is, they are not the Hindu group, but rather the Greco-Roman or the Egyptian one. One might ask how can one put one's trust in any non-substantive being if one cannot be sure just which one or one's one is talking about.

Finally, there is the "we" problem. To just which "we" does the phrase refer? There are an estimated 30,000,000 people in the United States who do not believe in any forms of divinity listed above, or any other for that matter. Where do we come in, or go out for that matter?

This is Dr. Jonas' Commentary No. 187 for BuzzFlash, now Truthout.

Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor of Preventive Medcine at Stony Brook University (NY) and author/co-author/editor/co-editor of over 30 books. In addition to being a columnist for BuzzFlash/Truthout (http://www.buzzflash.com, http://www.truth-out.org), he is Managing Editor of and Contributing Author to TPJmagazine.net.

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References

1. The Christian Post, Politics, Nov. 2, 2011

2. Secular Coalition for America, Letter, Nov. 15, 2011

3. Wikipedia, "In God We Trust," Notes, References: 1. U.S. Department of the Treasury. (2011) "History of 'In God We Trust'" www.treasurty.gov 2. As shown on the Cordoba (bank notes and coins); see for example Banco Central de Nicaragua. 3. Duncan, Ann W. (2008). Religion, Rhetoric, and Ritual in the U.S. Government," Church-state Issues in America Today. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, pp.77., 4. Wikisource. "Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaguaral Address"; http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. Retrieved 18 October 2011; 5. United States (1897). Congressional Serial Set. US: Government Printing Office, p. 260