MOTTO OR LOTTO?

A recent incident was featured in the media and appeared and vanished as such a brief flash that you might easily have missed it. The $621 million Capitol Visitor Center recently opened, but not before Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., threatened to delay the opening of the marble-and-stone center that took seven years to build at triple the original cost. Some last-minute fixes had to take place to allow thousands of visitors to get their first look at the underground museum, now the first stop for people touring the Capitol. What had to be fixed?

After taking a tour of the center in September with Steven Ayers, the architect who oversaw its completion, DeMint correctly noted that it had erroneously described "E. Pluribus Unum" Latin for "from many, one" as the national motto rather than "In God We Trust." Despite winning a months-long battle to highlight the importance of religion in U.S. life, DeMint was not satisfied, saying the center still misrepresents American history by downplaying the faith of the founding fathers and other prominent figures. The center's "most prominent display proclaims faith not in God, but in government," he noted.

DeMint protested an engraved statement near the center's entrance: "We have built no temple but the Capitol. We consult no common oracle but the Constitution."

Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Roger Wicker of Mississippi, along with Republican Rep. Randy Forbes of Virginia, joined DeMint in the protest. For now, as a quick fix, "Our Nation's Motto" has been plastered over so that it no longer describes "E Pluribus Unum" as the national motto.

So what’s the big deal? Just this: Although most Americans wouldn’t even recognize the difference and wouldn’t care, let alone protest, there is a fundamental issue involved here. “E Pluribus Unum” in Latin means “Of Many, One”. That phrase is not objectionable at all in depicting the unification of the individual citizenry in a common effort to “preserve and defend” our constituted privileges and responsibilities. It belongs on the Seal of the United States where the founding fathers placed and it ought to remain there, but it is not our motto. The word “motto” is defined in the dictionary as “a short expression of a guiding principle”. “In God We Trust”, officially engraved on our coins since 1856, and designated by the Congress, July 30, 1956 as our motto, accurately expresses a vitally important principle that lies at the very heart of whether our nation survives or collapses. Simply stated, if the many are one, if there is unity in diversity, devoid of trust in the one true and living God, nobody wins. The record of history testifies that if “E Pluribus Unum” rather than “In God We Trust” is our “guiding principle” it inevitably leads to chaos.

Millions of Americans play “Lotto”, a lottery game which, it may be said, is financed by the many and collected on by the very few. In most cases when the winning number is drawn, “out of the many there is one.” Chance, the calculus of probability, dictates that you as ticket buyer will not ever be the one. No matter how many times you play you are essentially paying for the experience of being a loser.

We need to embrace the conviction that “In God We Trust” is both the reason that brought together the people who founded our nation; the many became one in that effort. Just as true, we must realistically face the probability that trusting in a kind of supposed unity of the many, leaving God out as the key ingredient of the formula, will result in what is predicted in Psalm 9:17, namely that “all nations that forget God will be turned into hell”, or to paraphrase it, will turn in to a hell on earth without “In God We Trust” as their “guiding principle”. As a line from our national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner” puts it, “Then conquer we must when our cause it is just, and this be our motto – “In God is our trust.”

The promised certainty of thriving as a nation by genuine commitment God is our greatest hope as well as our only hope. The odds of continuing to survive as a nation without living by our official motto are even slimmer than the chances of winning at Lotto.

~ Dan Light