“In God We Trust” was adopted as the official motto of the United States in 1956. The phrase has appeared on U.S. coins since 1864 and on paper currency since 1957.
The motto was placed on United States coins because of the widespread trauma and heightened religious response that existed during the Civil War. “Both [sides of the Civil War] read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other,” spoke President Abraham Lincoln during his Second Inaugural Address (with the Civil War in progress). While the Treasury Department was being actively petitioned by outsiders (such as the Reverend M. R. Watkinson) to add a religious statement to currency as early as November, 1861, Treasury Secretary Chase did not approve the precise “In God We Trust” until December 9, 1863.
For the love of GOD!
That’s right you Atheist God hating people- I said it!
I have found my self lauging at the Atheist getting all HELL bent out-of-shape over this as though their whole world will now crumble as they will some how be forced to believe in God now.
Laughable, well really it is pathetically sad!
Because I see a piece of paper, some money or some other OBJECT with the word GOD, Jesus or a Cross on it, does it mean I must believe in the three? WOW, if I can be forced to believe in something simply because it is put on an object, well then I would have the issue rather than the person/group of people putting the information on said object.
Then, I found my self having to educate the poorly uneducated left wing loons-thanks to the Dep of Education- and the Atheists, my bad as I guess they are the same group of people, on our Founding Fathers. It seems they truly believe that our Founding Fathers were NOT Christians and that America was not founded on Christian principles.
WRONG!
So, let’s edumacate some lefties today shall we?
First and Foremost, they argue that our Founding Fathers were Deists. The FACT is, there were OVER 50 Founding Fathers and NO, they were not all Deists. Yes, there were some who were, but CLEARLY Atheists have no clue what a Deist really is, therefore let’s give a brief definition:
Diest: “One who believes in the existence of a God or supreme being but denies revealed religion, basing his belief on the light of nature and reason.” Deists reject the Judeo-Christian accounts of God as well as the Bible. They do believe that God is eternal and good, but flatly reject having a relationship with Him through Christ.
#1. It appears that they like to use the 1797 Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Tripoli as evidence that we are not a Christian Nation. What they PURPOSELY FAIL to note is that in Article XI that “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, when the treaty was renegotiated eight years later, Article XI was dropped .
” Some view this as “a smoking gun” that America was not founded as a Christian nation, while others argue that it was simply a concession to the Muslim nation (when the treaty was renegotiated eight years later, Article XI was dropped).
#2. John Adams
The second President (or tenth if you consider John Hanson the first) wrote to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813:
The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were. . . . the general principles of Christianity. . . . I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature.
However, Adams is often quoted as saying, “This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!” However, here’s the completequotation in an April 19, 1817, letter to Thomas Jefferson:
Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been on the point of breaking out, “This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion at all!!!” But in this exclamation I would have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean hell.
As a Unitarian, Adams flatly denied the doctrine of eternal punishment believing all would eventually enter heaven. (Many Unitarians reject the Trinity and most accept all religions as valid expressions of faith.) But being a good Unitarian, he was certainly open to the teachings of Christ
Jesus is benevolence personified, an example for all men. . . . The Christian religion, in its primitive purity and simplicity, I have entertained for more than sixty years. It is the religion of reason, equity, and love; it is the religion of the head and the heart (Letter to F.A. Van Der Kemp, December 27, 1816).
#3. Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams organized the Boston Tea Party, and served as Governor of Massachusetts, a delegate to the Continental congress, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
In his 1772 work, The Rights of the Colonists, Adams wrote:
II. The Rights of the Colonists as Christians.
The right to freedom being the gift of the Almighty…The rights of the colonists as Christians…may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutions of The Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.
In his Last Will and Testament he wrote:
Principally, and first of all, I resign my soul to the Almighty Being who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying on the merits of Jesus Christ for the pardon of my sins.
#4. Alexander Hamilton
The Episcopalian authored many of the Federalist Papers,signed the Constitution, and became the first Secretary of the Treasury. In an April 1802 letter to James A. Bayard, Hamilton proposed The Christian Constitutional Society:
In my opinion, the present constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banner bona fide must we combat our political foes, rejecting all changes but through the channel itself provided for amendments. By these general views of the subject have my reflections been guided. I now offer you the outline of the plan they have suggested. Let an association be formed to be denominated “The Christian Constitutional Society,” its object to be first: The support of the Christian religion. second: The support of the United States.
Hamilton was shot and killed by Aaron Burr in a duel on July 12, 1804. His last dying words reportedly were:
I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to Him for mercy; pray for me.
#5. Patrick Henry
Best known for his “give me liberty or give me death” speech on March 23, 1775, he became the first governor of Virginia.
One of his most famous quotations, cannot be verified, although it’s used by many Christian ministers: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!” It’s not found anywhere in his recorded writings or speeches.
However, here’s a verified quotation from a letter to his daughter dated August 20, 1796:
Amongst other strange things said of me, I hear it is said by the deists that I am one of the number; and indeed, that some good people think I am no Christian. This thought gives me much more pain than the appellation of Tory; because I think religion of infinitely higher importance than politics; and I find much cause to reproach myself that I have lived so long, and have given no decided and public proofs of my being a Christian. But, indeed, my dear child, this is a character which I prize far above all this world has, or can boast.
And in his will
This is all the inheritance I give to my dear family. The religion of Christ will give them one which will make them rich indeed.
#6. John Jay
One of the authors of the Federalist Papersand first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Jay wrote to Rev. Uzal Ogden, on February 14, 1796:
I have long been of opinion that the evidence of the truth of Christianity requires only to be carefully examined to produce conviction in candid minds. . . .
And in an April 23, 1811, letter to John Bristed, April 23, 1811, he wrote:
While in France . . . I do not recollect to have had more than two conversations with atheists about their tenents. The first was this: I was at a large party, of which were several of that description. They spoke freely and contemptuously of religion. I took no part in the conversation. In the course of it, one of them asked me if I believed in Christ? I answered that I did, and that I thanked God that I did.
#7. Thomas Jefferson
The writer of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United States wrote to Charles Thomson in 1816:
I, too, have made a wee-little book from the same materials, which I call the Philosophy of Jesus; it is a paradigma of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the book, and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain order of time or subject. A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.
Jefferson was a Deist who respected Christ’s teachings, but rejected His divinity, His miracles, and His resurrection.
#8. George Washington
In his Speech to Delaware Indian Chiefs on May 12, 1779, Washington said:
You do well to wish to learn our arts and our ways of life and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention.
The Constitution Before Darwin
To the framers of the Constitution, the idea of having a government not based on God would have been unthinkable. It is important to remember that when the Constitution was written, the only possible explanation for the existence of the Universe was special creation. Therefore, all of the delegates at the Philadelphia convention were creationist. This is the reason the framers did not create a “secular” state in the modern sense of the term. Indeed, the concept of “secularism” as it is used today didn’t even exist in 1787. It is largely a twentieth century concept. Since the framers of our Constitution predated Darwin and the theory of evolution, the desire to have a “secular” state would have made as much sense to them as Egyptian hieroglyphics. It is only with the advent of Darwin and an alternative explanation for the existence of the Universe that a secular state becomes desirable. There were atheists in 1787 to be sure but they lacked a coherent scientific explanation for the existence of the Universe.
At the same time, the framers of our Constitution did not want America to become a theocracy. They did not believe in a theocratic state. The framers of our Constitution did not want clergymen to pick the Presidents and set government policy. However, this is not to say that they saw no role for religion in government. The framers most certainly did believe that religion and religious values should influence the government and its policies. George Washington’s first Proclamation as President made this abundantly clear. On the day that Congress finished its work on the First Amendment, it called on President George Washington to issue a Proclamation to the people of the United States to thank God for the freedoms we enjoy. A week and a day later the President’s opening paragraph in his Proclamation said: “Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor . . .” Note 2. The words “to obey His will” are fatal to any suggestion that George Washington and the framers of our Constitution believed in “secularism.” In America, religious values influence government policy through the vote of the people.
Where is “God” in the Preamble to the Constitution?
Secularists are very quick to point out that the word “God” does not appear in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. They claim that this is highly significant. It proves that the United States should not be ‘under God’ in their opinion. Of course, they are correct in one point. The word “God” does not appear in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution or anywhere else. However, it is doubtful that this fact has the kind of significance they claim it has. Generally, the word “God” will appear in two places in most constitutions. The first place is in the preamble to the constitution. The second place is in the religion clauses in the bill of rights. For example, the word “God” appears in the preamble in eight state constitutions. In four states, the “Supreme Ruler of the Universe” is used instead. By far, the most popular divine reference in a preamble is “Almighty God.” This appears in the preamble of 30 state constitutions. In some states, the state constitution does not have a preamble. However, a divine reference can be found in the religion clauses in the bill of rights in each instance. There is only one state constitution which has a preamble that does not have a divine reference of any kind. This is the Constitution of Oregon. But here the words “Almighty God” appear in the state religion clauses. In the case of the U.S. Constitution however, no divine reference appears in either the Preamble or in the religion clauses in the First Amendment. Why is this true?
The most likely reason why the word “God” does not appear in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution is textual. The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution is modeled after the Preamble in the Articles of Confederation. Since the Articles of Confederation did not use the word “God” in the Preamble, this is the most likely reason it does not appear in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. The Preamble in the Articles of Confederation began by listing all 13 states. It began as follows: “Articles of Confederation and perpetual union between New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, etc. . . . and Georgia.” When the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution was first drafted, this was the model that was used. Later, as the constitutional convention was coming to a close, a short form was agreed to. The 13 states were dropped in favor of the much simpler form We the People.Thus, rather than trying to establish a radical godless state, the most likely reason the word “God” does not appear in the Preamble was because the Articles of Confederation did not have it. It is doubtful that anyone in 1787 could have foreseen the development of radical secularists groups like the ACLU and their ‘spin’ on the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
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UnPoliticallyCorrect 