JRN131 Pat Kaehler: November 2009

TINA’S BLOG FROM CHAPTER 5
For this week’s blog I chose the use of “In God We Trust” printed on all American currency as being politically, socially, and emotionally charged. The image, idea, and who or what God is varies greatly, and always has. My bringing this subject to surface is not that of ungodliness, atheism, or any anti-religious opinion, I believe it is something we have all grown accustom to seeing without giving it a second thought. All people certainly have the right to relate God in any way they choose, and it is exactly for that reason our government’s actions should not put one belief before another. The separation of church and state refers to the limits our very own Constitution places on the power of the government (both federal and state) to legislate about religion. The First Amendment explicitly prohibits the government from establishing or controlling religion, yet “In God We Trust” was put on all PAPER currency by an act of Congress in 1957. The mid to late 1950’s was a time of terrible racism, religious discrimination, and political oppression in the United States. Following World War Two the fear of communism grew. Adding “In God We Trust” to American currency was thought to be an act of religious and political propaganda to counter the threat of “godless communism”. Aside from all this political hypocrisy what does God have to do with money anyways? I would imagine God would be against it, for what good or purpose does it bring? I am sure we have all heard the saying “money is the root of all evil”, who could argue that? The actual saying appeared in the New Testament; “For the love of money is the root of all evil”, Timothy 6:10. Given this direct opposition from the bible we go ahead and put God on money anyways. It seems mixing God and money could emotionally confuse our younger generation, it is just an advertisement like any other… God is good, he is the creator of all things, and he is on money, so let’s go spend it! (That must be good too). It is the American way, what could possibly be better? 
Pat’s response (in full length):
The original national motto: "E Pluribus Unum"
The original motto of the United States was secular. "E Pluribus Unum" is Latin for "One from many" or "One from many parts." It refers to the welding of a single federal state from a group of individual political units -- originally colonies and now states.
On 1776-JUL-4, Congress appointed John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson to prepare a design for the Great Seal of the United States. The first design, submitted to Congress on 1776-AUG-10 used the motto "E Pluribus Unum." It was rejected. Five other designs also failed to meet with Congress' approval during the next five years. In 1782, Congress asked Mr. Thomson, Secretary of Congress, to complete the project. Thomson, along with a friend named Barton, produced a design that was accepted by Congress on 1782-JUN-10. It included an eagle with a heart-shaped shield, holding arrows and an olive branch in its claws. The motto "E Pluribus Unum" appeared on a scroll held in its beak. The seal was first used on 1782-SEP-16. It was first used on some federal coins in 1795. 1
The replacement motto: "In God We Trust:"
The war of 1812 was an unusual conflict. Both sides claimed victory. The winner depends upon which history books or which country's schools you attended. Also, the war lasted well beyond 1812.
During 1814, Francis Scott Key (a.k.a. Frank) had an eventful September. "Traveling under a white flag, Key met with both an enemy general and admiral, recovered a war prisoner, became a war prisoner, watched a historical bombardment, lost a night's sleep, and wrote" what eventually became the American national anthem: The Star Spangled Banner. 1
The final stanza reads:
"And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."
In 1864, the words were shortened to "In God We Trust" and applied to a newly designed two-cent coin.
Almost a century and a half ago, eleven Protestant denominations mounted a campaign to add references to God to the U.S. Constitution and other federal documents. Rev. M.R. Watkinson of Ridleyville PA was the first of many to write a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase in 1861 to promote this concept. 2 Watkinson suggested the words "God, Liberty, Law." 3 In 1863, Chase asked the Director of the Mint, James Pollock to prepare suitable wording for a motto to be used on Union coins used during the Civil War. Pollock suggested "Our Trust Is In God," "Our God And Our Country," "God And Our Country," and "God Our Trust." Chase picked "In God We Trust" to be used on some of the government's coins. The phrase was a subtle reminder that the Union considered itself on God's side with respect to slavery. Congress passed enabling legislation. Since an 1837 Act of Congress specified the mottos and devices that were to be placed on U.S. coins, it was necessary to pass another Act to enable the motto to be added. This was done on 1886-APR-22. "The motto has been in continuous use on the one-cent coin since 1909, and on the ten-cent coin since 1916. It also has appeared on all gold coins and silver dollar coins, half-dollar coins, and quarter-dollar coins struck since" 1908-JUL-1.
The 1828 dictionary contains the definition of money as:
A coin, stamped metal; any piece of metal usually gold, silver or copper, stamped by public authority, and used as the medium of commerce. Bank notes or bills of credit issued by authority, and exchangeable for coin or redeemable, are also called money; as such notes in modern times represent coin, and are used as a substitute for it.
The Light of Media Bias within Religion, Faith & Spirituality:
I chose this to represent my final presentation as not only as it speaks to me personally, but as Chapter 5 covered “charged” topics, pictures, and ideas, Tina’s post was certainly one that represented how the mass media limits its facts, objectivity and fairness. I believe this article that was presented on Google and I am attaching the main article from Google below, have been reported as media bias and would like to have the opportunity to show the biased representation of the mass media internet postings.
Per the Critical Thinking in Media Analysis for this class, Democracy is effective only to the point that the public is well-informed any topic, nationally or international events. Some of the myths that obscure our logic is that most stories are produced with independent investigative journalism, that news writers only report facts without drawing conclusions, that fact and opinion are clearly separated in what is printed as news, that objective reality is the only thing reported. But we all know that there can be a massive background of facts, but because of space, 99.999% of facts are not printed, nor mentioned later in an article, thus objectivity and fairness is compromised. Another biased and objective ideal that no one achieves is the interpretation of any one story or article, due to the multiple points of views, any event or circumstance reported can and will be viewed and interpreted in different ways.
To achieve objectivity we first need to identify the point of view from which a news story is constructed, then identify the audience it is written for, recognize the points of view it is negating or ignoring, and then distinguish the raw facts behind the story from the interpretation and spin being put on the facts.
The quote I attached below is exact wording from the article, which I would say the point of view for the whole article, “that government doesn’t support religious freedom”? The intended audience, in my opinion is all the American’s that have not a clue what and how the “In God We Trust” came about and why. Our thirteen colonies were founded on the declaration of independence, all the men the signed the declaration were men that believed in God, and knew they needed a higher power in order to survive and wanted this great nation of ours to be founded on solid ground (it’s in the bible). How can they say government doesn’t support religious freedom, we are not imprisoned for speaking our mind, quoting scriptures, or cursing? Are we? So, I would have to suspect the author of this article wanted to get most American’s “charged” in order to do some shaking and get the uneducated population “charged” to storm congress?
The points of view that have been negated or ignored are the 99.999% of the facts of how, why and when the “In God We Trust” was actually founded.. Yes, the bills were printed with this in 1957, but the phrase was enacted, voted on, and applied to coins way before the 20th century. The writer should have included the details of the original thoughts and reasoning behind the phrase. But by excluding the original origin and meanings of why we have this, the writer was able to create the “charged” ideas and acts of defaming the bills to get its targeted audience to do the same and make a statement of what “who can follow instructions”? Certainly not based upon the written words in the article of our government not tolerating religious freedoms, otherwise they would be jailed for their acts, and included in the article is the content that it is perfectly legal to defame the face of a bill, so that negates it’s meaning right there..
We have within this great country of ours countless denominations and followings, groups, gatherings, congregations, body’s, whatever you want to call it, allowing you to choose and believe what you want to believe and follow. It’s not government that is limiting our choices, it our lack of knowledge….
So what does "In God We Trust" actually mean? Based on the facts, it means only that the government continues to maintain superstitious practices and paranoid acts that should have died along with McCarthyism. It means that the government does not actually support religious freedom. It means that the government continues to establish that monotheism, belief in one "Almighty God," is the de facto official religion of the United States.
God Bless America! One Nation, Under God.
Along with "In God We Trust" these ridiculous and unthinking statements are the hallmark of government in the United States.
As Americans evolve to reject religion and the ranks of atheism, agnosticism, and secular humanism continue to grow stronger, we may eventually achieve an enlightened government; one that supports the separation of state and church; one that respects the rights of individuals.
Until then however, let's just keep on spending that "godless" money….