'In God We Trust' Poster Campaign

American Family Association has launched a national campaign to place before our children a copy of the official motto of the United States. It is our hope that this poster will be a reminder of the historical centrality of God in the life of our republic.

In a time when many are working to remove any acknowledgement of God from our public life, these words are legally sound, since they were officially adopted by Congress in 1956.

The Mississippi legislature recently passed a law requiring each public school classroom, auditorium and cafeteria to display a copy of our national motto. Many thanks to Mississippi Senator Allen Nunnelee for his good leadership in introducing this legislation. The governor signed the bill into law, and it becomes effective July 1, 2001.

The legislature did not provide any funding for the bill, leaving it up to private citizens and groups to provide the posters. Mr. Kenneth Briggs, a printer from Pearl, Mississippi, volunteered to print the posters for the 32,000 classrooms, auditoriums and cafeterias without cost. AFA is serving as the coordinator of the project, asking local civic and church groups to sponsor a school by providing framed copies of the poster free of cost to a local school in their community. By the way, Mr. Briggs has graciously offered to print for free all the bordering states to Mississippi who pass the legislation.

As was expected, the ACLU threatened to sue if a school displayed the poster. They hoped that by threatening to sue, they could get the bill defeated. They did not. The public officials stood up to them! It was not the first time the ACLU has entered into this fray. Last year they sued county treasurer Rita Cline of Kansas after Cline displayed a poster with the national motto in her office.

U.S. District Judge Sam A. Crow threw out the ACLU suit, and he did so with some stinging words for the group which wants to deny freedom of speech to those with whom they disagree. He called the ACLU suit "patently frivolous without any basis in law." You can't get much plainer than that.

What is it that the ACLU finds offensive? The national motto simply says: "In God We Trust." It is printed on every piece of currency produced in this country. One wonders if the ACLU would threaten to sue should someone post a framed dollar bill in a classroom?

Other states are considering passing a similar law requiring a posting of the national motto in classrooms in their states (Click here to see if your state already has a law). I urge you to encourage your state officials to do so. Would it not be a great thing to have our national motto in every classroom of every public school in America?

I'm sure that AFA supporters in every state would be thrilled to work together and provide framed copies of the national motto to schools in their communities. Let me suggest that you contact your state officials and get the ball rolling. Such a movement would cause the ACLU to go bananas! I'm sure there are printing companies in every state that would be happy to print the posters for free. And AFA would be happy to provide the local printers with artwork to make the posters uniform across the nation.

Worried about lawsuits? The courts have always upheld the display of the national motto in public places. And should the ACLU want to sue, your AFA Center for Law and Policy will be happy to defend without cost. I'm really not worried about the ACLU suing. Why? Because they know they will lose.

Hey, get busy! Let's place a copy of our motto "In God We Trust" in every classroom in the country!

Donald E. Wildmon
AFA President

ACTION NEEDED

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