Poll Finds Nearly Half of College Students Want ‘In God We Trust’ Removed From Currency
“We live in a secular nation, not a theocracy.”
America has a history crisis in education. Too many students simply don’t understand or value our nation’s past.
Christian Headlines reports:
45 Percent of College Students Want ‘In God We Trust’ Removed from Currency
Nearly half of college students believe the national motto, “In God We Trust,” should be removed from U.S. currency, according to a new survey.
The poll of 1,001 college students found that 45 percent believe it should be removed and 53 percent say it should remain. The survey was conducted for The College Fix by College Pulse, a survey and analytics company.
The Supreme Court this year rejected a challenge to “In God We Trust” on currency and upheld a ruling by the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. In that earlier decision, the Eighth Circuit ruled the motto “does not compel citizens to engage in a religious observance.”
“Placing the motto on money is rationally related to the Government’s legitimate goal of honoring religion’s role in American life and in the protection of fundamental rights,” the Eighth Circuit ruled.
Further, the Eighth Circuit said, “The Supreme Court has long recognized the ‘unbroken history of official acknowledgment by all three branches of government of the role of religion in American life from at least 1789.’” The decision noted that the “[t]he First Congress made it an early item of business to appoint and pay official chaplains, and both the House and Senate have maintained the office virtually uninterrupted since that time.”
But many college students nevertheless want the motto removed.
“We live in a secular nation, not a theocracy. Best to remove,” a Clemson University student said in the survey’s comments section, according to The College Fix.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
They’re right. It just cheapens both religion and government. Like printing the Pater Noster on trash bags.
It also has little to do with the nation’s early past. It didn’t appear on money until the Civil War. As a national motto, it’s very late—it didn’t supplant the much earlier E Pluribus Unum until the 1950s. It’s trendy, flash-in-the pan stuff.
And the idea that יהוה needs so much advertisement is just weird. He really doesn’t need such a tawdry boost from the mere mortals at Treasury. But if we must have it, I’d prefer something more like the Prussian Gott Mit Uns.
The Star Spangled Banner is 205 years old, and though it didn’t officially become the national anthem till 1931 it unofficially filled that role at least 50 years earlier. And it says “And thus be our motto: In God is our trust”.
In the fourth stanza—which, like the third, is almost never performed or even printed.
There just might be a reason for that.
And they darn well should be performed more often! After 9/11 I found myself singing the 3rd and 4th stanzas frequently, instead of the 1st.
I’m not saying this because I’m opposed to the motto, I actually like it; however, in our current culture it’s simply not true.
Why should we print a lie on our currency?
Maybe it should be changed to “In God a few of us trust”. Not as pithy, but at least accurate.
Nearly half of college students believe the national motto, “In God We Trust,” should be removed from U.S. currency
But, somehow, we should follow our youngers and lower the voting age to 0.
Oy.
I am not inclined to remove it from the gold and silver coins.