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                  In  God  We  Trust?

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      Are religious mottoes as American as George Washington
and apple pie? Hardly. The Founding Fathers would not
recognize our current national motto and would be surprised
at the religious declaration on our currency.

     ONE NATION, UNDER GOD: though the Pledge of Allegiance
to the Flag was first published in 1892, the phrase "under
God" was not added to it by Congress until 1954. The sponsor
of the bill changing the pledge claimed that, "an atheistic
American . . . is a contradiction in terms." American
Atheists has twice taken the pledge to court to have this
anti-Atheist propaganda removed.

     IN GOD WE TRUST was not our national motto until 1956
when Public Law 851 was passed by Congress. Until then the
Latin phrase "E Pluribus Unum" (One Out of Many) served the
nation well.

     MINTING RELIGION: "In God We Trust" began to appear on
selected U.S. coins in 1866. It was not printed on U.S.
currency until 1955, when Congress' Public Law 140 made it
mandatory that the phrase appear on all currency and coins.
This currency conversion was the subject of an American
Atheist lawsuit in which a federal court of appeals ruled
that the phrase was merely patriotic.


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