“In God We Trust” signs not needed
American Atheist posters donated to public schools. Credit: American Atheists
By Austin Cohea | Big Stick Editor |
Recently Arkansas passed a law that in all public schools, “In God We Trust” must be displayed in all public schools.
Texas has a law that says that “In God We Trust” may be displayed but it’s not mandatory.
Many states including but not limited to Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, and Arizona all have laws that say that the United States’ De Facto Motto must without exception be displayed in all schools.
Other states like North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma have similar laws in progress and Kentucky has one drafted that says “In God We Trust” has to be displayed in a “prominent location.”
The original U.S. motto was “E Pluribus Unum” which means “In Many We Are One” and in 1956 Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the new national motto into law as a way to differentiate the United States from Soviet Russia.
However, Christianity is the world’s biggest and most practiced religion, with 31 percent of the world’s 7.3 billion people, so the U.S. really doesn’t need to set itself apart.
Religious advertising has no place in any public school or government, it’s an issue of separation of church and state that the founding fathers would not have approved of, because the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States guarantees freedom of religion. There’s a reason America has no established national religion, because despite there being 92 free countries in the world, America is “The Land of the Free.”
With all of these red states passing these laws, it’s only a matter of time before Texas takes into account what they want to cherry pick from the constitution and decides to amend the current “In God We Trust” policy.
In short, “In God We Trust” may be the national motto, but it’s still alienating and dividing the little atheists who go to these schools, just like a prayer led by a government employee is and always will be. It’s unethical to say “In God ‘We‘ Trust” because the 10 percent of people who do not constitute millions.