CCCE- Cash Rules Everything Around Me

This one I got in my own inbox, though not personally sent to me. It was on a (completely unrelated to the email and its subject) listserv.

The new dollar

You guessed it…..
‘IN GOD WE TRUST‘IS GONE!!!

The new George Washington $1.00 coin is the first money
Ever issued by the USA in modern history without the words “In God We
Trust”.

By omitting these words, our politically correct, secularist leaders made a conscientious
Decision that either;
1) God does not exist, or
2) that God exists, but can no longer be trusted.

Who originally put ‘In God We Trust’ onto our currency?

One of the Presidents made that decision for these coins.

Now our U.S. Government has dishonored them.

What can we do to show our displeasure?
First of all, let’s boycott the coin . Do not
Ask for it at banks. If it is given to you in change ask for dollar bills instead.
Write your Senators stating your displeasure.

Finally, if you agree, pass this e-mail on to others.
Collectively, we must send a strong
Message to those secularists who are trying to remove God from our culture.
If we do this, some 300 million $1.00 coins will back up and rot in the supply chain!

Together we can force them out of circulation.

Let’s see what our old friend Snopes has to say:

Actually, the Presidential $1 coins incorporate a few new design features not found on other current U.S. coinage, one of which is that elements typically displayed on either the obverse or reverse of U.S. coins- the year of minting, the mint mark, the motto from the Great Seal of the United States (“E Pluribus Unum”), and the current national motto of the United States (“In God We Trust”) will instead be included as edge-incused inscriptions. That is, all of these elements will appear on the edges of the new dollar coins rather than on their fronts or backs […]

The Presidential dollars neither omit the phrase “In God We Trust” nor demonstrate a plot to “phase God out of America.” The national motto is simply being relocated, along with other common features, to the edge of the coins (in large part to avoid cluttering the obverse design, which already includes each president’s name, number, and years in office). As for the claim that positioning “In God We Trust” as an edge-incused inscription means that the motto will quickly be worn away, it is exceedingly unlikely that any of the presidential dollar coins will circulate nearly long enough to experience that much wear.

(Some of the George Washington and John Adams presidential dollars were discovered to be missing their edge inscriptions shortly after the initial release of those coins, but those examples were the result of minting errors and were not reflective of the new dollars’ intended standard appearance. The edge inscriptions are added in a separate step on different machinery.)

So, printing error and style changes. Not so much the “big bad secularist plot” the email’s author imagines. While we’re discussing this, I’d like to ask a question of religious people who think like the author: What’s so bad about secularism? These people, who decry the fact that Christians are not allowed to practice their religion freely in places like China and Saudi Arabia and write emails calling for boycotts until that situation is rectified, are the first people who get defensive and whiny when any religion other than Christianity in this country wants to be public with their beliefs, or when those of us who are “evil secularists” think that just maybe it’s best for everyone if the government stays out of the religion business.

Hey people I’ve just described, that thing you’re advocating in other countries, where Christians are free to practice their religion despite being a minority in their country: That’s secularism! How would you feel if the money said “In Allah we trust”? I think you’d be offended. If it said “There is no god in whom to trust” you’d also be offended, I’m sure. But if it said nothing about any gods? How would that make any difference in your life or your beliefs? If your faith is so fragile that you have to be reminded of it each time you make a currency exchange, then you need to examine it very closely, because it doesn’t sound like there’s a whole lot there. Why, ask yourself, is it so important that your beliefs, to the exclusion of those of millions of your fellow Americans, be acknowledged by the government.

Who originally put ‘In God We Trust’ onto our currency?

One of the Presidents made that decision for these coins.

Now our U.S. Government has dishonored them.

Actually, it was Congress that made that decision. Presidents don’t introduce legislation. Taken from this site:

In 1956, the nation was suffering through the height of the cold war, and the McCarthy communist witch hunt. Partly in reaction to these factors, the 84th Congress passed a joint resolution to replace the existing motto with “In God we Trust.” The president signed the resolution into law on 1956-JUL-30. The change was partly motivated by a desire to differentiate between communism, which promotes Atheism, and Western capitalistic democracies, which were at least nominally Christian. The phrase “Atheistic Communists” has been repeated so many times that the public has linked Atheism with communism; the two are often considered synonymous. Many consider Atheism as unpatriotic and un-American as is communism. The new motto was first used on paper money in 1957, when it was added to the one-dollar silver certificate. By 1966, “In God we Trust” was added to all paper money, from $1 to $100 denominations.

Ah, the Cold War. Do we really, as a nation, want to be carrying around relics of McCarthyism? Dude was crazy. PS, most American atheists aren’t communists. In fact, we’re generally pretty big on democracy, as are most atheists worldwide. The problem with Communist governments isn’t that they’re officially Atheist, it’s that they’re nearly always totalitarian regimes. And those are bad, but hardly exclusive to Communism. Iran sucks just as much as North Korea.

To those who still don’t think that theocracy is so bad, because, hey you’re a Christian and you’re the majority, what makes you think the government would stop at “Christianity” if they established a national religion? They totally wouldn’t. First they’d go to protestantism, then they’d pick a denomination, and if it wasn’t yours, you’d be SOL, just like this guy:

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. I immediately ran over and said “Stop! Don’t do it!”

“Why shouldn’t I?” he said.

I said, “Well, there’s so much to live for!”

“Like what?”

“Well … are you religious or atheist?”

“Religious.”

“Me too! Are you Christian or Jewish?”

“Christian.”

“Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?”

“Protestant.”

“Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?”

“Baptist.”

“Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?”

“Baptist Church of God.”

“Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?”

“Reformed Baptist Church of God.”

“Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?”

“Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!”

To which I said, “Then die, heretic scum!” and pushed him off.

Scoring

Points for:

Color
Font Papyrus, yo!
Snopes did it!