Earlier this month, a speech by Ben Carson at CPAC revealed the role of Ceremonial Deism as a form of Christian Nationalism. This week, a school district in Texas, under siege by Christian Nationalists, exemplified the toxic and divisive role of Ceremonial Deist Christian Nationalism in practice.

The Carroll Independent School District, a group of eleven schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, was forced by state law to display posters promoting Christian Nationalism in every one of its classrooms. In Texas, public schools are legally compelled to display any religious materials that include the phrase “In God We Trust”, when those materials are provided by religious organizations, businesses, or advocacy groups outside the school.

Public schools are government schools, supported economically, legally and through infrastructure by federal, state, and local levels of government. All levels of government are established ultimately through congressional legislation, and the 14th amendment clarifies that connection, so that the Bill of Rights apply to all levels of government in the United States. That means that public schools are required to avoid any act that could be understood as endorsing religion in any way.

Yet, here we are, with Texas public schools required by law to hang signs that teach children to trust in the Christian god. How is that possible in the United States?

Public schools routinely violate the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion through a profoundly dishonest judicial doctrine known as “Ceremonial Deism”. The idea is that when Christian rituals, Christian religious lessons, Christian symbols, and Christian organizations are promoted by governmental bodies, it’s somehow not really Christianity being promoted. Instead, government promotion of Jesus, god, the Christian bible, and the like are claimed to be part of a mysterious governmental religion called Ceremonial Deism. No one actually belongs to any Ceremonial Deist church or anything like that, but judges say it exists nonetheless, and they insist that Ceremonial Deism is not Christianity, even though it looks and acts exactly like Christianity.

In short, Ceremonial Deism is a transparently fraudulent way for Christian-controlled courts to allow Christianity to enjoy the special privilege of being propped up by governmental agencies such as public schools. Non-Christian religions are never given equal access to this privilege.

You see the dishonesty of Ceremonial Deism on display all the time. It’s the nationalist ideology behind the phrase “One Nation Under God”. It’s in the prayers given by Christian priests at the openings of government meetings. It’s in the requirement that people swear oaths on Christian bibles. It’s in the motto “In God We Trust” seen on the backs of American currency, and now in Texas public schools.

Public Schools Invaded By A Christian Nationalist Corporation

The Shallow History of In God We Trust

The motto “In God We Trust” doesn’t come from the Constitution or the founding fathers. It was invented by Christian Nationalists.

The phrase only became the official motto through an act of Congress in 1956.

“In God We Trust” replaced “E Pluribus Unum”, a motto that emphasized the plurality of American culture. The purpose of “In God We Trust” is to replace cultural diversity with top-down enforcement of cultural uniformity. It’s a motto that uses the power of big government to try to cram all Americans into the box of Christianity.

In doing so, “In God We Trust” distorts American history.

Non-Christians have always been a significant part of the population of the United States of America. Native American systems of belief are more numerous, and have a longer history than, the various forms of Christianity. People stolen from Africa by Christian slave traders brought their own non-Christian beliefs to the United States, though those were harshly suppressed by Christian slave owners. People who have no belief in gods have also been present throughout American history.

“In God We Trust” is simply a false statement. A more accurate statement would be that some Americans trust in the Christian god, some Americans trust in non-Christian gods, and some Americans trust in no gods at all.

To force American public schools to hang posters declaring “In God We Trust” is to engage in the worst kind of propaganda. It’s preaching a false history in order to elevate one religion over all others, using the power of the state to do so.

What Kind of Trust Is This?

The campaign that forces public schools to hang “In God We Trust” posters in every classroom is also bad religion.

If Christian Nationalists actually trusted in the Christian god, they wouldn’t fuss and bother about it. Instead, the “In God We Trust” campaign in Texas shows how much Christian Nationalism fail to trust in their god.

If people really believed that there is an all-powerful god who supports the cause of Christian Nationalism, they would stop working so hard to promote Christian Nationalist ideology. They would sit back, and let their all-powerful god do the work, confident that in a snap of the fingers, their god could transform America into a Christian Nationalist theocracy.

Instead, Christian Nationalists act as if they believe that the Christian god is a weakling who they can’t rely on. Christian Nationalists seem to think that their god is incapable of getting anything done, so they have to do all the work themselves.

The alternative explanation is that Christian Nationalists don’t actually believe in their god at all. If they truly believed in their god, and trusted in their god, they would stop worrying about politics, go home, and allow all the godly magic to happen on its own.

The harder Christian Nationalists work to use the power of government to force “In God We Trust” into public schools, the more clear it becomes that they don’t trust in any god at all.

They shout “In God We Trust” to try to conceal their lack of belief.

The only thing that Christian Nationalists really seem to trust in is the power of corporate money to corrupt American democracy and undermine American freedom.