In God We Trust?
A group of atheists have filed a lawsuit demanding that the United States remove the phrase ‘In God We Trust’ from their currency. You can read about it here.
I have a number of reactions to this. The first is that they are misunderstanding the purpose of the separation of church and state. The separation of church and state is meant to prevent state churches such as was found in Europe. Mentioning God on currency does not break the separation.
I also would say that they are making too big of a deal over this. Why do they really care? It would not bother me if there was a quote from Buddha or Darwin on my money. Money is money, who cares what words are printed on it.
People need to get over this idea that they have the right to not be offended. It is okay to encounter things you disagree with or even dislike.
Having said that, it might be a good idea to get rid of the phrase, just not for any of the reasons these atheists are concerned about.
What God is being trusted and who exactly is doing the trusting? I can’t imagine that the entire nation is trusting in the Christian God.
I think the phrase is rather meaningless. I worry that there is a generic civil religion that ends up making things difficult for biblical Christianity. If the government ends up getting rid of ‘In God We Trust,’ it is not a big deal. There are more important battles to fight.
