The Freedom From Religion Foundation has been leading the charge against Project Blitz, a Christian nationalist crusade to redefine American law. FFRF Director of Strategic Response Andrew L. Seidel explains the divisive impact of displaying the motto in public schools- and why it is so important to Christian nationalists. In a new piece for Rewire News, the last in his three-part series, Seidel writes:
Christian nationalism will greet schoolchildren returning to classrooms in 16 states this fall. New laws in Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Florida, and South Dakota encourage or require public schools to display the divisive national motto: In God We Trust.
Piecemeal reporting on the laws gives the impression that state legislators around the country are spontaneously discovering the value of imposing a religious slogan on a captive audience of schoolchildren. But pious wave is no coincidence, these laws are part of a crusade to rewrite American history and the American identity. They were spawned by Project Blitz, a Christian nationalist crusade that seeks to redefine what it means to be an American—so that to be an American is to be a Christian and to be a Christian is to be an American—and then to rewrite the law accordingly. Project Blitz’s goal is to favor Christians, creating a special class, while relegating everyone else to, at best, second-class status.
Emblazoning In God We Trust in public schools furthers that goal. The new laws in most of these states mirror the model bill in the Project Blitz handbook. The laws are not so much a camel’s nose under the tent, as they are tethering the camel inside the tent and expecting other people’s children to worship it.
This article is the last of a three-part series Seidel is writing for Rewire. The first article tells the story of precisely how In God We Trust got on our money and became the national motto. It’s a haunting tale of Christian nationalism that Seidel tells at greater length in his book, The Founding Myth. The second piece examines the legality of the motto and the Christian hypocrisy courts have inadvertently exposed when upholding the phrase.
