Dr. Ben Carson took to Facebook Tuesday to entreat his followers to take a stand against “liberal progressives,” asking them to “[c]hange your profile picture to you holding a ‘In God We Trust’ sign if you believe God should remain a core principle of our nation.”
Change your profile picture to you holding a “In God We Trust” sign if you believe God should remain a core principle of our nation.
Posted by Dr. Ben Carson on Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Several of Carson’s Facebook followers came out in support of the retired neurosurgeon, praising him for his integrity and religious conviction.
“Carson cares about God and America. Obama cares more about his climate change cult than he does keeping Americans safe,” wrote one Carson fan who went on to decry President Barack Obama‘s hatred of the Constitution, his “Marxist upbringing,” and the fact that he “secretly supports” radical Islamic terrorism.
Others were more lucid in their support or disapproval “I’m not religious but I still believe there is nothing wrong with keeping ‘In God We Trust’ on national currency,” wrote one. Conversely, one self-proclaimed “godly man” admonished Carson that he “need[ed] to brush up on [his] constitutional rights.”
Throughout the campaign, Carson has frequently espoused a notion of the country as essentially “Judeo-Christian” in its founding, most controversially asserting that a Muslim president would run contrary to the Constitution. Carson sought to clarify that he only meant that a Muslim president would have to put the Constitution above their own sincerely held religious beliefs, a standard to which Carson has defiantly never held himself.
Of course, “In God We Trust” only became the official motto of the country in 1956. Seeking a historical justification for the change, one congressman sought support from the Legislative Reference Service at the Library of Congress. Unfortunately for him, the report concluded that
if one motto were to be designated as being more clearly “the” motto than any other, it would seem to be E Pluribus Unum. This has priority in time, having been officially chosen in 1782 and confirmed by the new Government under the Constitution in 1789; and it is the only motto on the obverse of the Seal of the United States, the seal that has been used throughout our history as a nation.
Core principles, indeed.
[h/t IJR]
[image via Facebook]
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Follow Sam Reisman on Twitter: @thericeman
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