In God We Trust: Separation of Church and State

Recently Alamance County decided it was going to allow decals on all county vehicles that read “In God We Trust.” It’s the nation’s official motto. So why not? 

This morning when WCNC broke the news on Facebook, I read through comment after comment after comment of people talking about the “Separation of Church and State.” After reading so many comments, I decided to tell people what most scholars will tell you is the truth behind the Separation of Church and State: Great here comes the Separation of Church and State comments: Do you even know what the separation of church and state is? No, you don’t. Let me explain, the government can’t set up a state religion. This isn’t setting up a state religion—it doesn’t say what God or god they are putting their trust in. Also, separation of church and state means that the government can’t come in and tell people what religion they have to observe—Finland and Germany you are Lutheran, England you are typically Church of England. Get ya facts straight on what a phrase means before you start spouting it.

When the first amendment was written, it spoke to Jefferson’s mind—especially since it says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” According to UC-Riverside Professor of Religion and History Edwin Gaustad and Princeton University Religion Professor Leigh Schmidt “ Here a double guarantee could be found. First, government will do nothing to give official endorsement to a religion or to set one above another; second that government would do nothing to inhibit the freedom of religion.

Another commenter, whom I can only imagine is an Deist at best, an agnostic/atheist at worst decided to challenge me. Great, I am always up for a challenge. His comment to me was that putting the nations motto on any car is a slap in the face of people who don’t worship anything.  Well he must know, because his cheeks must be pretty sore, getting slapped all the time from Christians. 

I, in my always spiritually thinking way, said “We all worship some God or god. Wether it’s a deity or not.” I have always said that “God will not yell over whatever you have placed before Him in your life.” I went to find an example of what I meant and kept coming up with articles that encouraged us to put ourselves first—as an act of loving God. But that is a bit anti-biblical don’t you think? After all Jesus says that it will be easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into the kingdom of God.

Whatever we place before God we are using to replace God. If I place all my extra time that I would normally use for devotions before my time with God, I am replacing whatever I am doing as a god. There may not be a deity involved, I may not be worshiping it, but it is becoming a god none-the-less.

Instead we should be willing to look at truly putting God back where He belongs. Sincerely I have come to believe that I am single because when I wrote my dating profile out, I said “My Christian faith is of the utmost importance to me. I want a husband whose faith is of the utmost importance to him, and that is willing to make sure that God is the center of our relationship.” So yes, I want you sitting in church with me every Sunday. Yet, no one that I have met seems to think that faith in God is really that important…And that was evident today when I spoke on the Separation of Church and State.

Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” We are to delight ourselves in God first, THEN the desires of our heart will be given to us. Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Again, trust God first, then He will make your paths straight. Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

There are tons of scripture that tell us to PUT GOD FIRST; and does it really matter if the Nation’s Motto is on a car…as it says “In God We Trust.” The constitutionality of "In God We Trust" has been pretty well established in American jurisprudence.  It is frequently challenged in court and to my knowledge thus far has never been found against in terms of constitutionality.  

The reason is that it is generally considered to be purely ceremonial or ornamental, has no denomination attached to it, and is in no way coercive.  

The big precedent on the matter is from 1970, Aronow v. United States, in which the court found:

"It is quite obvious that the national motto and the slogan on coinage  and currency 'In God We Trust' has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion.  Its use is of patriotic or ceremonial character and bears no true  resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of a religious exercise. ...It  is not easy to discern any religious significance attendant the payment  of a bill with coin or currency on which has been imprinted 'In God We  Trust' or the study of a government publication or document bearing that  slogan. In fact, such secular uses of the motto was viewed as  sacrilegious and irreverent by President Theodore Roosevelt. Yet  Congress has directed such uses. While 'ceremonial' and 'patriotic' may  not be particularly apt words to describe the category of the national  motto, it is excluded from First Amendment significance because the  motto has no theological or ritualistic impact. As stated by the  Congressional report, it has 'spiritual and psychological value' and  'inspirational quality.'"

This decision is cited in basically every ruling since, and has held every time.  

Now, I sympathize with the arguments against.  But it is important - for both theists and atheists - to understand what the first amendment does and does not say.

It says:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

What it does not say:

• Congress shall make no law which mentions God;
• The word "God" shall not appear on anything bearing government authority;
• America must be a country which treats religion as a value-neutral proposition;  
• That there is an absolute "separation of church and state";
• Everybody has a constitutional right to be free from accidentally being exposed to something that might offend them.