Should “In God We Trust" Return to Public Life and Be Backed by Law?

On July 30, 1956¹, President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation² establishing, “In God We Trust,” as America’s national motto³ in 36 US Code 302.

According to Fox News, public school officials in Alabama are looking to put God back into their schools through displays of the national motto.

Florida State Rep. David Standridge sponsored the original legislation that gives public bodies the right to display the “In God We Trust” motto. Six state legislatures passed laws mandating that every public school prominently display the U.S. motto, “In God We Trust.” Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Arizona, Louisiana and Tennessee. Minnesota passed a law allowing, but not mandating, that public schools post the motto, and North Carolina law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue optional “In God We Trust” license plates.

Although this legislation is perfectly realistic, practical, and indisputable, there are some in our country like the obscure Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFR) who feel, “It’s a tsunami of Christian national laws in our country right now…With the Republicans in charge of Congress and so many of these states, we are seeing a constant push for theocracy.”

This, of course, is absurd. A theocratic government, as so many Islamic nations mimic, forces conversion to their religion. While American government can most definitely enforce the moral conduct laws that God has clearly defined - because God is the Author of Law - government cannot take from a non-religious man the rights that Nature’s God has granted so long as his behavior stays in line with the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.  When a man breaks a moral law, he forfeits the liberty that law protects.

There are many reasons that America has long been seen as such an exceptional nation — but those reasons are tied to the religious beliefs and the moral principles of the people that established America.

In his Farewell Address, George Washington believed it was appropriate to recognize these religious beliefs and moral principles, claiming;


Please understand, while the purpose of Government is not to make a man a Christian, it is to penalize by statute and justice those who seek to inflict violence upon the liberties God has given to man. Government, like a schoolmaster, is to guide a man to the love of the God who gave rights, and who jealously guards those rights with an impenetrable wall of Law.

Government exalts Law because it was given authority from God, and it (government) is a servant of God that will benefit mankind.  If Government were to separate itself from the God who ordained it, it will corrupt, for no man has another man’s interest in mind without the moral constraints given by the God who redeemed mankind.


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1. www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-eisenhower-signs-in-god-we-trust-into-law

2. uscode.house.gov/statviewer.htm?volume=70&page=732

3. www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/36/302