E Pluribus Unum - Let's return to the original motto

How far we've deviated from our origins in the United States. The innovative idea of our founders was built upon a leader being truly elected of the people, by the people and for the people, NOT being governed by a ruler or regime that was put in place by any supernatural being, or so claimed to be. We would come together as a country and rule ourselves with a representative we chose at the helm of government. Hence, the stirring maxim of our great nation, E Pluribus Unum, From Many, One, makes absolute sense. It was the phrase on the front of the Great Seal of the United States adopted in 1782 by an Act of Congress. The words also appear on the Seals of the President, Vice President, Congress, House of Representatives, the Senate and the Supreme Court. 

E Pluribus Unum has never been considered controversial. The motto was intended to represent the federal nature of the new country,  i.e. out of many states came one nation. The framers may have stridently disputed many issues in the formation of the United States, but E Pluribus Unum was not one of them. In fact, as the population grew, the motto took on a secondary meaning as well, reflecting the country's melting pot nature - the interpretation being of many people from different countries and cultures blending together to form a new national identity, that of U.S. citizens. Certainly, if there's one issue we can all agree on, it's that E Pluribus Unum is an excellent statement of America and its values, right? Not if you have a religious goal in mind and want to circumvent the Establishment Clause which separates the church from the state.

In 1956, E Pluribus Unum was unceremoniously replaced by In God We Trust during the Great Red Scare thanks to McCarthyism. It was intended to show those godless communists who bowed down to an oppressive government that crushed any nonconformity and professed atheism that we bow down to a supernatural deity that no one has seen, but still trusted. But whatever god our Congress was hoping to appease apparently wasn't impressed. Or the substitute motto was appealing to the wrong god. The surrogate motto has done nothing to bring cohesion to the nation, or lift it up, and an excellent case can be made that things have gone to hell in a hand-basket since its adoption. (Looking back to 1956, maybe ‘To Hell in a Hand-basket’ would have made a better motto!)

Nowadays, the Religious Right, led by people like Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann and the CPC or Congressional Prayer Caucus (yes, our supposedly secular government actually has a Congressional Prayer Caucus. Guess which god they appeal to the most.), insinuate that E Pluribus Unum is, um, well frankly, un-American. The CPC, which is the leading voice of religious conservatism (read Christian) in the capitol, recently wrote a letter to President Obama, chastising him for referring to the motto E Pluribus Unum, suggesting that using it was unpatriotic and amounted to an anti-God statement. The letter stated that he should instead be promoting the motto "In God We Trust". Apparently, E Pluribus Unum is tantamount to sacrilege to the Christian right. They also claim the President isn't mentioning ‘God’ enough in his speeches and that he shouldn't refer to "inalienable rights" without mentioning that they come from God. Try as I might, I can’t find that reference in the Declaration of Independence. A "Creator” does not in any way suggest the Christian god, since it could just as well mean ‘The Universe’ or the ‘Flying Spaghetti Monster’.

Regardless of how it's presented, In God we Trust does promote theistic religion at the expense of non theism and secularism. The phrase originates from religious texts such as the Bible and has always been supported the strongest by Christian leaders and in a Christian context. Critics argue that it promotes the belief in a single, transcendent deity, that of the main Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But in a nation of ‘out of many – one’, it is foreign to many other religions. Buddhists do not believe in a personal deity, Wiccans believe in two deities, Hindus believe in many, and it is absolutely meaningless to agnostics and atheists. As such, it violates the principle of separation of church and state.  

Maybe few people in this country care about the motto. To those who pay any attention to it, appealing to some ill-defined, nebulous, supernatural entity that doesn’t have the good grace to show itself, or indicate it is pleased to be appealed to, is the axiomatic equivalent of saying ‘How do you do’. Almost no one actually wants to hear how someone is doing when met; it’s just a phrase that rolls off the tongue from overuse. And so it may be. But to the Religious Right it is a pronouncement on a national level, endorsed by the government, that there is a belief in a god figure. To me, it is nonsense to claim the slogan has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court may have ruled that it has ‘lost through rote repetition any significant religious meaning’ but that's hogwash! It is vehemently defended repeatedly by Fundamentalist Christians because they have recognized all along that it was a petition to their particular interpretation of god, the one named Jehovah. Any way you slice that, it demolishes the wall separating church from state.

Imagine how those who approve of the replacement motto would feel if it instead said “In Vishnu We Trust’ or ‘In Allah We Trust’. Would it still have that warm and fuzzy appeal? In God we Trust is a motto that divides us, deeper and deeper, and says nothing about who we are as a nation. E Pluribus Unum has never divided us and describes us as our founding fathers intended. Time to return to the original.