{"id":11251,"date":"2018-02-04T05:22:47","date_gmt":"2018-02-04T05:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=11251"},"modified":"2018-02-05T05:27:48","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T05:27:48","slug":"the-complex-history-of-in-god-we-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-complex-history-of-in-god-we-trust\/","title":{"rendered":"The complex history of ‘In God We Trust’"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Mislin<\/a>, Temple University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In his first State of the Union address<\/a> President Donald Trump sought to link religion with American identity.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cTogether, we are rediscovering the American way. In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of the American life. The motto is \u2018In God We Trust,\u2019\u201d Trump declared.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But the history of \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d is more complex than Trump\u2019s assertion suggests. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n President Trump after his first State of the Union address.<\/span>
\n Win McNamee\/Pool via AP<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That phrase, and similar invocations of God in national life, are relatively recent additions to America\u2019s political language. From my perspective as a religious history scholar<\/a> they reflect a particular view of the United States, not a universally accepted \u201cAmerican way.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Civil War<\/h2>\n

Political rhetoric linking the United States with a divine power emerged on a large scale with the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. M.R. Watkinson, a Pennsylvania clergyman, encouraged<\/a> the placement of \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d on coins at the war\u2019s outset in order to help the North\u2019s cause. Such language, Watkinson wrote, would \u201cplace us openly under the divine protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putting the phrase on coins was just the beginning. <\/p>\n

In 1864, with the Civil War still raging, a group supported by the North\u2019s major Protestant denominations began advocating change to the preamble of the Constitution. The proposed language would have declared<\/a> that Americans recognized \u201cAlmighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the amendment\u2019s supporters had succeeded in having their way, Christian belief would be deeply embedded in the United States government. <\/p>\n

But, such invocations of God in national politics were not to last. Despite lobbying by major Protestant denominations such as the Methodists, this so-called Sovereignty of God amendment was never ratified. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n The 1849 liberty head design by James B. Longacre.<\/span>
\n National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History via Wikimedia Commons.<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d was added to coins, it was not added to the increasingly common paper money. In fact, when coins were redesigned late in the 19th century, it disappeared from coins as well.<\/p>\n

As I demonstrate in my book<\/a>, these developments were related to the spread of secularism in the post-Civil War U.S. For many people at the time, placing religious language in the Constitution or on symbols of government was not consistent with American ideals. <\/p>\n

The revival of \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d<\/h2>\n

The 1950s, however, witnessed a dramatic resurgence of religious language in government and politics. It was that decade that brought \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d into widespread use.<\/p>\n

In 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill placing the phrase on all American currency. One sponsor of that legislation, Congressman Charles Bennett, echoed the sentiments that had inspired the Sovereignty of God amendment during the Civil War. Bennett proclaimed<\/a>, that the U.S. \u201cwas founded in a spiritual atmosphere and with a firm trust in God.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next year, \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d was adopted<\/a> as the first official motto of the United States.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n U.S. Capitol \u2018In God We Trust\u2019 plaque.<\/span>
\n USCapitol (<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both of these developments reflected the desire to emphasize Americans\u2019 religious commitment in the early years of the Cold War. Historians such as Jonathan Herzog have chronicled<\/a> how leaders ranging from President Eisenhower to the evangelist Billy Graham stressed on the strong faith of the nation in setting the U.S. apart from the godlessness of Soviet communism. <\/p>\n

Recently, however, Princeton University historian Kevin Kruse<\/a> has shown<\/a> that religious language was not merely rhetoric against communism. \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d reflected domestic concerns as well.<\/p>\n

The belief in American religiosity that put \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d on coins and made it the national motto in the 1950s had emerged over several decades. Conservative businessmen had allied with ministers, including Billy Graham, to combat the social welfare policies and government expansion that began with Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal<\/a>. These wide-ranging programs, designed to tackle the Great Depression, irked many conservatives. They objected to government intervention in business and Roosevelt\u2019s support for labor unions.<\/p>\n

As Kruse notes<\/a>, this alliance of conservative business leaders and ministers linked \u201cfaith, freedom, and free enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this way then, President Trump\u2019s assertion on Jan. 30 that \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d could well be said to reflect certain American values. But, as my research shows, for much of U.S. history, the acceptance of such values ebbed and flowed. <\/p>\n

\"The\u201cIn God We Trust\u201d is a not a motto that reflects universally shared historical values. Rather it represents a particular political, economic and religious perspective \u2013 one that is embraced by President Trump and the modern GOP.<\/p>\n

David Mislin<\/a>, Assistant Professor, Intellectual Heritage Program, Temple University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Mislin, Temple University In his first State of the Union address President Donald Trump sought to link religion with American identity. \u201cTogether, we are rediscovering the American way. In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of the American life. The motto is \u2018In God We Trust,\u2019\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":11252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2450],"tags":[3964,3789,2639,1918,3965,2363,3784,3553],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11253,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11251\/revisions\/11253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}