“In God We Trust?”: Christian Nationalists’ Establishment and Use of Theistnormative Legislation

ABSTRACT

This essay examines how US Christian nationalists have come to rely on the motto “In God We Trust” as a piece of theistnormative legislation that they believe legitimizes their understanding of the United States as a Christian nation. Through an analysis of archival documents and congressional hearings, I demonstrate how Christian nationalists played a key role in the establishment of “In God We Trust” on coins and as the national motto that has allowed contemporary Christian nationalists to point to the motto as “proof” that the United States is a Christian nation. This project challenges the taken-for-granted historical narrative that the motto “In God We Trust” is a secular celebration of US religious heritage through demonstrating how the motto, from its beginning, has functioned to promote and mask Christian nationalism, often at the expense of marginalized groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Atheism
• Christian nationalism
• Christian privilege
• national motto
• Theistnormativity

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Deborah Whitehead, Doug Cloud, Thomas R. Dunn, Joshua Gunn, Leland G. Spencer, Jacqueline Rhodes, Rebecca Conklin, and the reviewers for their careful engagement with this essay.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ I capitalize “Atheist” to indicate those whose identity relating to religion is primarily characterized by the lack of belief in the existence of any gods and who willingly espouse their nontheistic identity. This capitalization is, in part, to distinguish this group from members of atheistic religions or people who do not believe in any god, and thus might technically be Atheists, but choose to pass as theistic. Additionally, I capitalize Atheist to indicate the shared sense of community that many Atheists have, often driven by and focused on their marginalization within theistnormative societies. I do not, however, capitalize “atheism” because it is a general ideological response to theistic religion rather than itself being a religion or organized system of belief.

² Notably, Thomas Jefferson is an example of a deist who was not antiatheistic and made clear attempts to include Atheists as citizens within the United States. Jefferson’s rhetoric demonstrates how individuals can be generally accepting of Atheists while still often reinforcing theistnormative narratives in public writings and statements (see Lee, “Theistnormativity” 274).

³ This quote was published in the NRA official publication The Christian Statemen as a response to Texas Representative Morris Sheppard’s 1910 proposed bill to insert “In the name of God … ” into the US Constitution.

⁴ It is important to acknowledge that, while Jewish Americans are generally included and respected in theistnormative rhetorics, this inclusion and respect often does not translate into the embodied experience of Jewish Americans who face continued antisemitism.

⁵ Notably, his appeal to choose an English motto reflects the nativist prejudices that often align with Christian nationalism (Perry and Whitehead).

⁶ The term “Judeo-Christian tradition” emerged in the United States in the 1930s and has played a key role in the Christian nationalists’ narrative surrounding the myth of Christian America (Gaston).