![]() There's nothing to gain, and the country has real problems to solve. No one with any clout has proposed erasing the national motto from our money. Who could blame Romney for seizing the opportunity?īut the bit about taking God off the coins just spreads trepidation and misinformation. The Democrats invited part of that smack by bumbling over mention of God in their platform and embarrassing themselves in the very public manner they tried to repair the gaffe. And I will not take God out of my heart." Speaking in Virginia over the weekend, Romney first referred to "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, then he cashed in: "I will not take God out of the name of our platform. That's got to be why GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney the other day pretended that "In God We Trust" is at stake in the election. You can secularize the words to avoid constitutional conflict, but many people still consider them religious. And that's true even though a federal appeals court, in rejecting a challenge to the motto, wrote in 2011 that the phrase carries patriotic value, even "inspirational quality," but has "no theological or ritualistic impact." And I doubt that anyone resorts to a credit card when engaging in naughtiness in order to avoid the guilt trip of sullying the Deity's name by paying cash. The God-fearing as well as the godless invest mightily in any number of activities that are enough to make God weep. The thing is, invoking God on our instruments of commerce has done little to save our society from a multitude of vices. It appeared on silver certificates in 1957 and was phased in for other bills, finally making it to the backs of Benjamins in 1966. It wasn't until 1956 that "In God We Trust" became the national motto. ![]() The proposal went to Congress, which passed the Coinage Act of 1864 President Abraham Lincoln signed it into law. Chase moved to put a religious motto on our money after hearing from many devout Americans, the first being a minister who said that it would "relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism" and that "no possible citizen could object." ![]() Treasury does tell us is that Civil War-era Secretary Salmon P. History hasn't recorded God's take on it - all we have is what his Son said years before about mixing God and mammon and rendering separately to God and Caesar. Mint rolled out the first 2-cent coins bearing "In God We Trust," as authorized by an act of Congress. ![]()
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