In God We Trust?

Our coinage and paper money carry the motto: "In God We Trust." Attempts to remove it can rile the folks. Indeed the decision to place it on the sides of the newest dollar coins has gotten people up in arms -- they think it's been removed! But does it belong there?
In reading Timothy Egan's article in the NY Times today, I discovered that Republican stalwart Teddy Roosevelt (he was a Progressive really), believed that the presence of this motto on our money was actually a sacrilege -- not to the nation but to God. I found the comments -- from a letter dated 1907 -- on line and will reprint it here. Consider his perspective; I think it has great merit.

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"IN GOD WE TRUST." When the question of the new coinage came up we looked into the law and found there was no warrant therein for Putting "IN GOD WE TRUST" on the coins. As the custom, although without legal warrant, had grown up, however, I might have felt at liberty to keep the inscription had I approved of its being on the coinage. But as I did not approve of it, I did not direct that it should again be put on. Of course the matter of the law is absolutely in the hands of Congress, and any direction of Congress in the matter will be immediately obeyed. At present, as I have said, there is no warrant in law for the inscription.

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. A beautiful and solemn sentence such as the one in question should be treated and uttered only with that fine reverence which necessarily implies a certain exaltation of spirit. Any use which tends to cheapen it, and above all, any use which tends to secure its being treated in a spirit of levity, is from every standpoint profoundly to be regretted. . . .

As regards its use on the coinage we have actual experience by which to go. In all my life I have never heard any human being speak reverently of this motto on the coins or show any sign of its having appealed to any high emotion in him. But I have literally hundreds of times heard it used as an occasion of, and incitement to, the sneering ridicule which it is above all things undesirable that so beautiful and exalted a phrase should excite. For example, throughout the long contest, extending over several decades, on the free-coinage question, the existence of this motto on the coins was a constant source of jest and ridicule; and this was unavoidable. Every one must remember the innumerable cartoons and articles based on phrases like "In God we trust for the other eight cents”; "In God we trust for the short weight"; "In God we trust for the thirty-seven cents we do not pay"; and so forth, and so forth. (Letter of November 11, 1907.) Mem. Ed. XXIV,83; Bishop II, 71. -- Found in the Theodore Roosevelt Web Book.

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