Texas Requires “In God We Trust” Signs to be Hung in Public Schools

(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) Texas passed a law that requires all “public or secondary school[s]” and “institution[s] of higher education” to post posters or signs bearing the national motto: “In God We Trust.”

The poster or sign must be donated to the school—or purchased with donated money—and the law stipulated that the school “must display [it] in a conspicuous place in each building of the school or institution,” reported Axios.

The law requires that the sign or poster also contain an image of the United States flag and the Texas flag but “may not depict any words, images, or other information.”

The bill’s co-author, State Senator Bryan Hughs, R-Tex., tweeted, “The national motto, In God We Trust, asserts our collective trust in a sovereign God.”

State Representative Tom Oliverson, R-Tex., said, “We just felt like it was a great opportunity to display our national motto in our public schools,” and that “This was a [sic] idea that I had after seeing something similar happen in a couple of different states,” according to KHOU 11.

The other states that have passed similar laws are Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama and Arizona, reported Forbes.

Some Texas schools have already begun receiving donated signs and are thus displaying “In God We Trust” for the school year of 2022. Patriot Mobile donated signs to Carrol Independent School District, located near Dallas, and Carrol ISD is displaying the signs in the entryway of their buildings, per CNN.

Patriot Mobile’s Marketing Director told CNN, “Patriot Mobile is honored to donate these posters to CISD and we’re very excited to see them amongst all of our schools.”

Predictably, not everyone was happy with this development in the kulturkampf.

A representative of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Sophie Ellman-Golan, said “Alone, they’re a basic violation of the separation of church and state. But in the broader context, it’s hard not to see them as part of the larger Christian nationalist project,” according to the Guardian.

Jews for Racial and Economic Justice was joined by Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition and academics in complaining to the Guardian about the new law.

Still, those on the right side of the culture war might be singing with the band Little Texas, “God Blessed Texas with His own hand.”