Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 07:28:30 -0500 From: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor) Subject: God Off The Money? To: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 19:05:52 -0500 From: Douglas Berger <dberger@ihumanism.org> Subject: God Off the money
On Friday 1/19/01, our local paper the Columbus Dispatch had an article about two Columbus area people who have started a project to stamp out the words "In God We Trust" on our currency.
The project is called godoffmoney.com http://www.godoffmoney.com
They sell a rubber stamp you can use to put the message "Keep Church and State Separate" on your dollar bills.
August Brunsman, one of the founders of the project is a member of the Humanist Community of Central Ohio and is Development chair of the Students for Freethought at Ohio State. He is also on the board of the Secular Student Alliance http://www.secularstudents.org and he previously worked with Campus Freethought Alliance http://www.campusfreethought.org
Here is the link to the article and to a "web extra" the Dispatch created about the issue:
<http://www.dispatch.com/news/features01/jan01/566592.html> is for the article itself.
<http://www.dispatch.com/news/features01/jan01/1864main.html> is for the web extra the Dispatch made about the "In God We Trust" issue.
In the article HCCO is mentioned but the reporter referred to us as "Central Ohio Humanists" even though August gave the reporter our full group name and web address. I sent an e-mail to the reporter and I got a letter to the editor accepted today in comment to the article itself.
Here is the text of my letter to the editor:
Dear Editor,
I am writing in regards to the story "In God, they don't trust Local pair want motto off money" by Dennis Mahoney that appeared in the 1/19/01 Faith and Values section.
I commend the Dispatch for publishing the story about August Brunsman and Robert Nekervis' effort to get "In God We Trust" off the nation's currency. It is good to see a minority view on the issue of the motto.
I am one of the Central Ohio Humanists that support Brunsman and Nekervis' project because I believe that our country was founded on the principles of laws and a government of the people by the people. Like the issue surrounding the burning of the flag, the motto on our money is divisive and offends many people.
The simple fact remains that if the formation and foundation of this country was predicated on a belief in God, as Stephen Hartkop, executive director of the Christian Coalition of Ohio said in the article, then our Constitution would have expressly said that.
The word God is not generic especially when you ask people about it and it is a sad commentary to Christians that the government would claim God was generic.
Government mottos that invoke God are not trivial because every nick in the wall of separation of church and state will lead to a weakening and finally collapse if those nicks aren't patched. Humanists support the wall for everyone who wants a government by all the people for all the people. Removing mottos that invoke God will not cause the collapse of the country it will strength it by returning focus on the real reason the country was founded.
Douglas Berger President Humanist Community of Central Ohio http://www.hcco.org
-- Douglas Berger
iHumanism: An Internet Humanist Community http://www.ihumanism.org
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