In God We Trust: Unconstitutional?

Earlier this year, the state of Georgia released stickers for a that—at the option of the motorist—can replace the driver’s county of residence for the phrase “In God We Trust.” Now, I’m not taking offense to the matter (and certainly, I’m not offended enough to be an activist about the issue), but at the same time, you have to wonder just how fair something such as this is to the totality of the community.

From a historical (and by that, I mean constitutional) perspective, the availability of the phrase on the license plates appear to be an instance of government sanctioning a specific religion...and if you’re keen on what our nation’s accepted grand narrative tells you, that’s precisely the sort of state-and-church interaction that we fought against as an emerging, independent nation.

It’s right there in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Logically, this puts us in an extremely sticky wicket: according to the First Amendment, we have the right to express and promote our faith, but at the same time, our government officials aren’t allowed to produce artifacts or legislation that promote a single faith.

As individuals, we have the constitutional freedom to promote and express our faith any way we want, as long as it doesn’t lead to incitement or fit the state’s definition of obscenity. That means we can slap pretty much anything on our bumper as a means of expressing religious affiliation and/or messages because it’s a form of protected personal expression. Now, the other side of the equation here is that government agencies (and that includes the state ) doesn’t have the same protected personal rights as individuals do, and that includes the right to religious expression. To simplify the matter: as individuals, we have the right to express our faith, but the government, as a sanctioning, overseeing entity, does not.

Am I saying that I believe the “In God We Trust” stickers are unconstitutional? Well, no, not really—it’s the Constitution that says the “In God We Trust” plates are unconstitutional. The plates are clearly identifying and associating themselves with the god of a specific religion—that being the Judeo-Christian one. The tags aren’t reading “In faith we trust,” or “In a god we trust,” but the deity of a single faith. The plates are produced by a state-sanctioned body, and the state is subject to federal regulations, of which the Constitution is the foremost law of them all. From a technical standpoint, there’s no way around it; the plates are cut-and-dry examples of state-endorsing-religion, but since an overwhelming majority of residents within the state are of that faith, nobody raises a fuss about the issue.

Imagine, if you will, the state changing its official motto to “Allah is God,” or redrawing the state flag to include a prominent Star of David, or erecting a statue of Buddha on top of the here in town. Something tells me we would be hearing much clamor about “church-and-state separation,” but as long as it’s our church we’re talking about, it’s nothing to fret about.

I constantly hear people talk about the United States being a “Christian nation.” Well, just because a majority of the people in the nation are of one faith doesn’t mean that the faith as a whole represents an entire culture. Even within Christianity itself, this can be an issue: since Catholics have the most official members within the United States of any denomination, would you feel comfortable in calling America “a Catholic nation?”

The term “In God We Trust” itself has a weird background, as it was actually added to U.S. money and the Pledge of Allegiance in the 1950s because of McCarthyism. In all reality, the phrase has more to do with political fear mongering than it does acknowledgement of personal faith, a strange irony I doubt many people dwell upon when considering the issue.

Do I want the state to recall or discontinue the stickers available on ? Absolutely not. Do I think people who purchase the stickers are breaking Constitutional law by doing so? Once again, not at all. That said, I think it’s pretty darn obvious that the things are quite biased in favor of one segment of the population, and the least state officials can do is offer residents additional license plate options so that they may promote their protected right of expression, too.