In God We Trust?

Read the following in the newspaper:

Retain 'In God We Trust'
The Lowell Sun
Article Last Updated: 09/19/2007 11:31:20 AM EDT

Recently the U.S. Mint released the brand new U.S. Coin Dollar for circulation among the populace.
I haven't seen one yet, but it has been described by people who have laid their eyes on it, that it has been well struck.
There is one minor flaw from what I've been told, and that flaw is not so minor in my mind, and I hope not in yours.
This country's motto of "In God We Trust" has been eliminated from the new dollar coin completely. How could that happen? From what I've heard and from what I've read, polls taken indicate that 87 percent of the people in these United States of America want the motto to be saved on all of our money, our buildings, and every other place where it appears as it has since our country was founded. Let the 13 percent that want the motto dropped or eliminated either move to another country or learn to live with the old phrase. Majority rules.
If you are in a store or business where you are offered this offensive coin as change, please politely refuse it and ask for paper dollars.

If we can get everyone in this country to do this and forward this message via e-mail or letters to the editor, maybe the person in Washington who approved this travesty will finally get the message that "We the people want 'In God We Trust" as our guiding light and our way of life, as it always has been, and as it always should be.
We refuse to use any coins without our motto, "In God We Trust" on them.
God bless America.
RON PETERS
Hudson, N.H.
Note: The new dollar coin does include the words "In God We Trust" -- but on the edge of the coin, rather than one of the sides, according to the U.S. Mint Web site.


LOVE the last part that the editors put in. So I wrote a response that might be published in the paper:

After reading Ron Peters' letter, “Retain 'In God We Trust,'” I would like to offer another side of the story, another way to understand this motto on our currency. I am opposed to having this motto presented on our coins and dollar bills for two different reasons.

First, religious freedom. Granted, when religious freedom came on the scene in the early days of the United States, most of those white landowning men actually meant “Christian denominational freedom.” You are free to choose Baptist or Presbyterian or Catholic, but other religions were not actually considered under their idea of religious freedom. However, in our post-modern age, most of us are able to look beyond ourselves and see that not everyone has experiences similar to our own. There are other religions out there, and praise God they are able to live “freely” here in America. However, if we did our World Religions homework, we would see that some religious beliefs include many Gods or do not include a God at all. Therefore, the gratuitous use of the motto “In God We Trust” infringes upon the religious rights of those whose beliefs are different than the beliefs of traditional monotheistic faiths.

Secondly, I believe it is sacrilegious to put the name of God on money. I do in fact have a strong belief in a monotheistic God, and I do truly trust in and love this God, and that’s exactly why I think the motto needs to go. I agree with Theodore Roosevelt, who wrote in 1907, “My own feeling in the matter is due to my very firm conviction that to put such a motto on coins, or to use it in any kindred manner, not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege ... it seems to me eminently unwise to cheapen such a motto by use on coins, just as it would be to cheapen it by use on postage stamps, or in advertisements."

Indeed, a number of biblical commandments forbid the trivial use of God's name, such as Exodus 20:7, Deuteronomy 5:11, and Leviticus 19:12. Money is also often discussed in the New Testament, and not in a positive light. Jesus clearly divides worldly matters like money from the Godly, for example when he says in Matthew 22:15-22, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is God's.” Jesus commands the rich to give all they have to the poor. Instead, we hoard all of our money that is ironically stamped with “In God We Trust.” If God is truly whom we trust, then we wouldn’t be hoarding our money, but giving it to the one third to one half of our world’s population that lives off of less than two dollars a day, or to the 29,000 children who die each day of hunger and disease. If in fact it is God whom we trust, why are we so defined by and obsessed with money, arguably the antithesis of God, money which breeds selfishness and greed and often violence and war and the like.

Ron Peter writes that “Majority rules,” but is the majority informed? Does the majority check their facts? (for example, like checking the facts to see whether the motto was actually eliminated from the new coin?) Is the majority conforming to materialism and worldly possessions? Does the majority really trust in God?

Jamie Green
2nd year Masters of Divinity Student, Harvard Divinity School
Resident of West Groton, MA