In God I trust

By John O. Eby
Pastor of First Baptist Church
Porterville, Calif.

Guest View
Januay 22, 2003

I appreciate the wonderful intentions of those who have proposed adding "In God We Trust" to the wall above the logo of the City of Porterville in the City Council chambers. I believe with all my heart that there is nothing more important in all of life than trusting God!

But I personally feel it would be a mistake to add those words to the wall of the City Council chambers.

This is a personal conviction. I am not speaking as a representative of the Porterville Area Ministerial Association. Many, if not most, of my colleagues in PAMA would disagree with the stand I am taking. I am not speaking as pastor of the First Baptist Church, for we as a congregation have not taken a stand on this particular issue. I am speaking only as an individual citizen of this area.

My reasons for stating that I oppose this move are simple:

1) Trusting God is a very individual act. Groups do not "trust God." ... To put the words "In God We Trust" up where they currently do not exist implies that the City of Porterville trusts God. Individuals trust God.

2) Our country is founded on Judeo-Christian values. ... But the founders of our country were very careful to make our country a secular, not a religious, state. The First Amendment of the Constitution was written to protect the freedom of churches and individuals from intrusion by the government, and it was also an attempt to keep the government from endorsing one religion or religion in general.

3) My ancestors as Waldensian, Mennonite, Huguenot and Church of the Brethren found themselves driven out of Italy, then Switzerland, then Germany and France because their religious beliefs did not conform to the religion recognized by the government of those countries. My spiritual ancestors, the Baptists, were driven out of Massachusetts by those who fled religious persecution in England and then set up their own religious state on these shores. We see much that should cause us deep caution in nations of the world today where the lines of separation between church and state have been muddied. It seems so harmless and comforting just to add a little phrase to the City Council chambers wall. I certainly would not question the motives of the City Council members who propose this since I know most of you personally and respect you deeply. But because of my deeply held religious conviction that the higher the wall of separation between church and state is, the safer our freedom is, I must speak in opposition to this resolution.

One of the great Baptist leaders of the 1700s, John Leland, wrote that the fondness of magistrates "to foster Christianity has done it more harm than all the persecutions ever did." As a follower of a God who is Almighty, let me affirm that we who trust in His almighty authority need neither the endorsement nor support of any worldly government, but only the freedom and protection by a government to compete in the open market of ideas. That is all we ask.

Excerpts of remarks by John O. Eby opposing a proposal to add the words "In God We Trust" to the Porterville, Calif., City Council chambers.