OPINION:
Secularists intent on feigning that God has no place in the political and cultural spheres are often faced with some uncomfortable rebuttals and realities.
Among them, “In God We Trust” is a slogan and proclamation that has long been emblazoned on American currency. And while debate has centered around its presence, few likely know the story behind how it unfolded — and why it matters.
Jon Brown of The Christian Post recently delved deep into the background of Matthew Rothert Sr., a Presbyterian furniture manufacturer from Arkansas who, after feeling compelled in 1953 to get “In God We Trust” on paper currency, embarked on that very journey.
It should be noted that Rothert was in a Chicago church on June 21, 1953, when he felt the Holy Spirit give him the idea to get the slogan placed on paper bills. At the time, it was already present on U.S. coins — something that started nearly 100 years earlier.
“’In God We Trust’ was first added to U.S. coins during the beginning of the Civil War, when religious sentiment was on an upswing and concerned Americans wanted the world to know what their country stood for,” Sarah Begley wrote in Newsweek in 2016. “Many wrote to Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase on the matter, and he agreed with their arguments.”
The first coin was released in 1864, with “In God We Trust” being adapted from a verse in Francis Scott Key’s “Star-Spangled Banner.”
Notably, it was a preacher who reportedly sparked the motto being on coinage. Mark Richards Watkinson, who ran a small church near Philadelphia, wrote a letter to Chase expressing his desire to see America acknowledge the Lord amid the Civil War.
“You are about to submit your annual report to Congress respecting national finances. One fact has been overlooked,” Watkinson wrote. “I mean recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins. What if our Republic were now shattered? Would not antiquaries of succeeding centuries reason from our past that we were a heathen nation?
“From my heart I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters.”
Chase took action and directed the Mint to adopt the slogan It was first applied to bronze 2-cent pieces in 1864. Another fun fact is that the director of the U.S. Mint at the time was James Pollock, a Presbyterian minister who also helped make the slogan happen.
Over the years, debate followed “In God We Trust,” and it was removed and reapplied to currency. Yet by 1908, it was back on and remains on U.S. coins today.
Many decades after the coinage issue was settled, Rothert found himself wondering why the same treatment wasn’t given to paper money. After the Holy Spirit prompted him to act, he went on quite a journey, according to his daughter, Alice Rothert Nelson — one that began in the pews that fateful day.
“The collection plate was going around, and he felt God tell him that the coins had ’In God We Trust,’ but it was the bills that went all around the world,” Ms. Rothert Nelson recently told Mr. Brown. “And he believed he should get ’In God We Trust’ on the bills of the paper money, and so that started the campaign.”
Rothert’s advocacy involved letters, speeches and passionate pleas to persuade people of the importance of the U.S. putting the slogan on paper currency. Ultimately, Rothert believed God had sent him on a mission to make it happen.
“The Lord seemed to tell me to do this,” he told the National Enquirer in 1987. “He put the idea so strongly in my mind that I worked on it until I accomplished my goal.”
Rothert continued, “I realized the circulation of American coins was limited to the boundaries of the country, while U.S. paper money circulated worldwide. It looked like Americans were saying they trusted in God only a few cents’ worth.”
His efforts paid off. After working with politicians and ceaselessly advocating, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill in 1955 that brought “In God We Trust” to paper currency, with the first bills bearing the slogan appearing just two years later in 1957.
Hope Rothert Taft, another of Rothert’s daughters, who served as first lady of Ohio from 1999 to 2007, told Mr. Brown that the central lesson of her father’s efforts is God’s ability to accomplish anything through His people.
“I use it as an encouragement to let people know that they can make a difference,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where they come from or what size of a family, or whether they’re well-known or not. They can make a difference, like my father did.”
In the end, Rothert’s efforts serve to also remind us, via our currency, of the supernatural source of our freedom and liberty — and that’s certainly something to celebrate.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” Mr. Hallowell is also the author of four books.
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