In his first State of the Union address President Donald Trump sought to link religion with American identity: “Together, 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 ‘In God We Trust,’” Trump declared. But the history of “In God We Trust” is more complex than Trump’s assertion suggests.
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 the placement of “In God We Trust” on coins at the war’s outset in order to help the North’s cause. Such language, Watkinson wrote, would “place us openly under the divine protection.”
Putting the phrase on coins was just the beginning.
In 1864, with the Civil War still raging, a group supported by the North’s major Protestant denominations began advocating change to the preamble of the Constitution. The proposed language would have declared that Americans recognized “Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government.”
If the amendment’s supporters had succeeded in having their way, Christian belief would be deeply embedded in the United States government.
Read the full story at Religion News Service
