Activists in Gaston County, North Carolina, are trying to get signs with the phrase "In God We Trust" posted in all public school classrooms. Is there a secular purpose for this? There doesn't appear to be and I can't imagine anyone thinking that there is.

The Shelby Star reports:

Izzi has been trying for the past three years to get the motto added to classrooms throughout North Carolina, with Gaston, Lincoln and Rutherford counties currently on his agenda. Izzi is a member of the American Family Association, a Mississippi-based Christian group that has been instrumental in getting the motto approved in 18 states, including South Carolina and Virginia.

The purpose of the motto, which Congress adopted in 1956 and is printed on U.S. currency, is to bring morals back to the classroom, said Bill Joles, owner of International Minute Press in Gastonia. “If we’re going to recapture the classroom, we’ve got to start somewhere,” Joles said. “I think this is the spot where we have opportunity to do that.”

Morals? Even if we grant that morals are absent from classrooms (which hardly seems credible), I can't think of any secular connection between trusting in God and morality. There are only religious connections — and that would mean that a primary supporter of the project is admitting that they want to post the signs for religious reasons.

This won't come as a surprise to anyone. The Christian Right's complaint about the "absence" of their god in public schools isn't made on the basis for secular arguments; on the contrary, they oppose secularism generally, so why would they offer secular arguments for their agenda? Their complaint is fundamentally religious: they believe that America is a Christian Nation and, as such, should promote Christianity. That's the purpose of these signs: to promote Christian beliefs in public schools.

Read More:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Church and State News
• Religion in Public Schools
• Secularism 101