USA: A glimpse on a nation without religious slogans

Madalyn Murray O’Hair (1919-1995)

On 15th February 2007, Madalyn Murray O’Hair would have laughed, if she was still alive.

Since nearly seventy years now, every Dollar coin of the United States bears the inscription “In God we trust” – a slogan that even became the national motto in 1956. In 1978, American Atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair filed a case against the religious inscription that is a violation of the principles of secularism as proclaimed in the First Amendment of the US Constitution. But neither this nor any subsequent case achieved the motto's removal. God and the Dollar seemed to be inseparable - till 15th February 2007. That was the day, when suddenly and unexpectedly thousands of god-free new George-Washington-Dollars – till today, the exact number is unknown - were rolling out of the highly official US Mint in Philadelphia, passed miraculously all inspections and went into circulation. Their outer edges where the standard inscription “In God we trust” should have been were conspicuously naked, plain and smooth.

New George-Washington-Dollar without the inscription "In God we trust"

Many did not believe that this was just a production mistake. They suspected a blasphemous conspiracy. Others greatly enjoyed looking at the inscription-free Dollar, regarding it as a symbol of God’s defeat. Those who had known her, remembered the powerful late American Atheist leader Madalyn Murray O’Hair. The plain edged coin appeared to them as a reminder that the battle for secularism is still to be won.

[Bulletin # 165]