Posted on 02/09/2005 9:39:25 AM PST by Alex Marko
Government officials in Pasco County, Florida, were seeking legal advice in late January about the constitutionality of hanging “In God We Trust” banners throughout the county library system. The opinion was being requested because the county’s Republican Party chairman is pressing county commission members to hang the banners, saying some 30 “In God We Trust” plaques are already mounted in other public buildings there. “This country was founded on Judeo-Christian values,” said Bill Bunting in the January 22 Tampa Tribune, adding that atheists who disapprove of such a display “can put a banner over it and take [the banner] down when you leave.”
Bunting has also gotten a pledge from Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Palm Harbor) to buy new American flags for each library to display. The libraries removed their flags, which were mounted on portable stands in meeting rooms, and stored them away because children often knocked the flags down.
Assistant County Administrator Dan Johnson, who requested legal counsel, told the Tribune he believes “the issue of separation of church and state may be getting cloudy” due to federal mandates the county is receiving “to give a share of grant money to faith-based organizations.”
How about "E Pluribus Unum," our *actual* US motto?
Actually, our national motto *is* In God We Trust. It's even mentioned in the fourth stanza of The Star-Spangled Banner:
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
"In God We Trust" was officially adopted by Congress as a second national motto (along with "E Pluribus Unum") in 1886, and Congress adopted it as the sole national motto in 1956. But as the fourth stanza of the Star-Spangled Banner, written on September 20, 1814, makes clear, In God We Trust has been a national motto since the early days of our nation.
Its on our money, in numerous institutions, and our society is based on judeo-christian beliefs.... Why not put it in our govt funded libraries?
Because, according to liberals who want both Christianity and America to be weakened, it somehow "establishes" state-sponsored religion... as if quoting Buddha will somehow magically force everyone within earshot to become Buddhist.
To me, the actual "Establishment" of a religion involves a set of rites, sacraments, religious services, religious observances, duties, ideals, and explanations for the supernatural or unexplained; it embodies an entire consistent philosophy, creates a network to train teachers/guides to lead the followers and to increase their numbers, and creates a method for sustaiing/finanacing those efforts; it has a body of literature to read and share with others.
But clearly I'm an idiot, and merely uttering "Merry Christmas" at work is unacceptable, unConstitutional state-sanctioned proselytizing. Right?
There are very few in the educational arena with your integrity and sense of reality. Thanks from all of us.
> "In God We Trust" was officially adopted by Congress as a second national motto (along with "E Pluribus Unum") in 1886
E Pluribus Unum precedes IGWT, going all the way back to 1782.
> But as the fourth stanza of the Star-Spangled Banner, written on September 20, 1814, makes clear, In God We Trust has been a national motto since the early days of our nation.
Might be *a* motto, but EPU is (or at least *was*, until 1950's PC took over) *the* motto. It is also a far more descriptive, relevant and meaningful motto. "IGWT" is the sort of thing virtually every country in the world can say, as virtually every country in the world is or was a theocracy of some type. But "Out of many, one" is uniquely American.
How about teaching the kids a bit of respect and putting the flags back up.
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