In God We Trust?

She's not one to speak her mind. She keeps her own counsel. But sometimes life becomes so frustrating that she has to say something. This is one of those times.

What has her upset is "how all the public buildings and places have to remove anything that has God's name written on them, such as 'In God We Trust.'"

This is a terrible testimony to the power of those who don't believe in God, she says. The wreckage resulting from such atheistic connivings is a plain as day! "...look and see," she says, "what is happening around the world and the United States. I can only speak for the U.S., but we were united by God's goodness and His word."

I guess she thinks that at a time in the past we were united under the Christian God and now we are not.

Unfortunately, this concerned citizen does not specify exactly what we should expect to see as a result of our disunity from God, so a reader can fill in the blanks. Fundamentalist Christians would no doubt point to the usual doings of the devil -- abortion, homosexuality, prayer in the public schools, etc.

Others, though, with a broader view of things might reference the preemptive and illegal war in Iraq instigated for the purpose of obtaining Iraq's oil. Initially a botched attempt, it now appears the oil barons will win, their no-bid contracts soon to be signed by Iraqi officials. How many people have had to die because we did not trust god to provide the oil to the oil companies in the first place?

In Afghanistan, a resurgent and powerful Taliban is rearing it's evil head. Maybe we should have left our army at home and knelt in prayer, trusting God to bring American-style democracy to that country.

Our economy is in the toilet. Jobs are disappearing by the thousands, and hundreds of thousands of homes are in foreclosure. Taxes are insufficient to provide for basic needs such as fire and police protection. Is this the result of not trusting the Christian God?

The Constitution of the United States has been abrogated by the very leaders sworn to uphold its provisions. Did we not trust in God enough? Torture is now an approved method of coercion so far as the Bush administration is concerned. Does God allow such things to happen because we fail to trust him?


While it may seem that the "evangelicals" in our country are neither as numerous nor as powerful as we thought, there are still too many people like this woman who blame the American people for not trusting God, symbolized by the lack of slogans such as "In God We Trust" posted in appropriate places. I cannot recall, however, when that particular slogan was normally found on "public buildings and places."

The poor soul has no clue as to what this country is about. The problem is not a lack of trust in God. God simply doesn't enter into the equation. While it is true that many of our political and business leaders have mouthed such pieties in profusion down through our history (and continue to do so), this country has never depended upon God, but upon the Constitution. And there is nothing of any god - Christian or otherwise - in that document.

When the Constitution was not enough, of course, we called upon the Army.

But the Constitution is not enough when individuals dedicated to enriching themselves as opposed to serving the people are put in charge. As we have seen in excruciating detail, the Constitution can be circumvented with aplomb by ingenious and clever and powerful people of evil intent. Perhaps we've "trusted" in God too much or in people such as President Bush who have claimed to "trust" God but behaved like the devil!


"'In God We Trust' was added to the nation's currency by a bill sponsored by a Dixiecrat congressman named Charles F. Bennett ... [a member of the secretive, fundamentalist group known as The Family]. Bennett, a self-styled ethics crusader, saw himself as a small-government man; God and the dollar would redeem the nation, if only Congress would unshackle them. 'Congress can't remake the soul of America,' he'd say, a notion he evidently though justified his opposition to civil rights."

Congressman Bennett offered the opening prayer at the second Presidential Prayer Breakfast (now known as the National Prayer Breakfast) "at which Supreme Court chief justice Earl Warren--then still a conservative--declared that separation of church and state was fine, so long as 'men of religious faith' were in charge of a country he described as 'a Christian land, governed by Christian principles.'" [from The Family by Jeff Sharlet]

Strange, isn't it, that even when we wrote "In God We Trust" on our coinage our problems were not solved! Adding "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance didn't change anything either.


But people haven't given up trying. In Toledo, Ohio, a group of true believers gathered at an Exxon-Mobil station to pray down the high price of gas. Before that happened, though, the pastor of Toledo's First Seventh-day Adventist church, Mike Fortune, drove members around the station in the church's van. A little magical lap.

Fortune then led the group in prayer: "We know you love us like crazy, Lord. We just ask in your name if you will work and intervene. We also want you to bless this gas station and its owners."

Rocky Twyman, founder of what's called "Pray at the Pump," joined hands with the folks gathered and sang "He's got the gas prices, in his hands..." to the tune of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." Twyman sermonized that "God is telling us to stop depending on ourselves so much and trust in him."

So far as I know, gas prices did not decline. But a couple of trucks that drove in to fill up, saw the group of pray-ers and turned around and drove away. As you might guess, the station owner was a little pissed. "I just lost a diesel sale, so I'm not happy about that," he said.


Ah yes, trust in God, that's all we need. Say a little prayer. Try some magic. Still unanswered, though, is the question as to why such religious wailing is necessary if indeed the Lord "loves us like crazy."

This whole silly business gives me gas.