Next month Michael Newdow will ask the Supreme Court to hear a case in which he maintains that "In God We Trust" on our coins violates the Establishment Clause. No doubt the Supreme Court will hear the case. If the Court took the case it would deny that he had standing (leaving the question, if he does not who does?). But it would be interesting to know what the Court would say if it reached the merits. Certainly it would deny that the use of God on the coins violated the Establishment Clause. Perhaps the Court would say that the phrase has been drained of religious meaning. Members of the Court have said similar things in the past. But those kinds of statements insult intelligence. The statement on our coins asserts that there is a God, indeed a special kind of God - a God we can trust. It is perhaps a fitting symbol of a country in which the golden arches greet us in every city that we make our money carry a religious slogan. But it does no service to religion.
It is also true, however, that Michael Newdow does little service to the cause of separation of church and state by bringing cases he is sure to lose. For discussion of Newdow and the reaction of separationist groups, see this report by the Religious News Sevice.
It is comforting, however, to imagine that the slogan will outlast actual religion in Amerika.
Posted by: jimbino | 12/30/2010 at 06:32 AM