Some things that were actually said by christians in 1954:
"Women look absurd wearing pants, and unless there's a war on, women should not be working."
"It is a fact that only some jobs can be performed by white men. Look at the office of the presidency. All white men in this christian nation just as God intended."
"All hell would break loose if all races had the same rights as whites.It's unnatural is what it is."
"Jews are evil."
"Homosexuals do not have the same rights because they are not really human."
And:
"We should put In God We Trust on our money to show that we are not like the Reds!"
The point I'm making here is,
we live in an multi-ethnic America today, and we are better for it. Isn't keeping In God We Trust on our money just paying respect to a slogan that has been used to justify religious tolerance?
Why shouldn't I expect someone today who wants to keep the slogan as any different from the other christian wisdom of the Cold War era?
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Yes, they are the same ones they desperately try to deny today.
I have the 1963 catholic almanac that records myriads of information that were of interest to the catholics of the day. As this was the year of many Vatican II proclamations there were comments on in in the news/current events section. Not a hint of how revolutionary it was going to be. I looked for a 1935 edition, but was unable to find one.
The intolerant ideas of religious people also turned the civil rights movement. I remember people urging, "these things take time, give people time to get use to this ..". So, so similar to the gay marriage arguments of today.
Certainly you don't think, as I have heard some do, that a motto makes an established state religion possible. It's too crazy to defend against that. I was more threatened by Bush saying, "You are either with us or with the terrorists." That was much more of a threat than in God we trust.
Besides don't all the pyramids and floating eyes cancel out the motto?
Do you really want to start a debate on who said what 50 years ago?? And be honest too, christians weren't the only ones saying those things, so this question is pretty pointless isn't it
It's blasphemous (and yet appropriate) that we've named our money "God" But wasn't it "under god" that was added to the pledge in 1954? I'm pretty sleep deprived, but I seem to remember "In God We Trust" being put on the money during the Civil War.
Confronting a Christer with unbelief can infuriate him to the point of murder.
Just ask Cromwell.
I think the words of Abraham Lincoln best answer this...in his proclamation of 1863, considered by many to be the true beginning of our nation's annual Thanksgiving observance. He wrote, speaking of our nation's many blessings, "They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."