Letters: 'In God We Trust' - Teddy Roosevelt disapproved; won't fix schools

ISSUE | IN GOD WE TRUST

Teddy disapproved

As one who believes in God, I must take President Theodore Roosevelt's position toward the national motto being placed on our currency ("Not a problem," Tuesday).

Roosevelt, who had been a Sunday school teacher, strongly believed in the separation of church and state. When he took office after President William McKinley's assassination, he deliberately did not swear on a Bible, and he did not believe that currency should bear the "In God We Trust" motto because money is used to buy worldly goods and services. Roosevelt said in 1907 that "to put such a motto on coins . . . not only does no good, but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege."

If we keep the motto, in which god do we trust: the god of theism, deism, atheism, racism, capitalism, materialism, or narcissism? We are a nation of many beliefs. Let's leave God out of this pluralism.

|Ernie Sherretta, Broomall, ejsherretta@gmail.com

Won't fix schools

Signe Wilkinson's political cartoon depicting Pennsylvania legislators trying to fix the ills of the school system by putting the motto "In God We Trust" on school buildings in defiance of separation of church and state was on the mark (Sunday). We have had that motto on coins and bills with no effect on our monetary system.

The overuse of this phrase, which has good intentions, has rendered it meaningless or trite. Complex problems do not lend themselves to simple solutions.

|Ralph D. Bloch, Rydal, ralphdbloch@yahoo.com