Concerned Humanists and Allies, HOW President Sam Mulvey will present the following letter to the Pierce County Council on Tuesday, July 29, 2014 at the 3 pm council meeting.  Please sign below by leaving a comment, including your name and location.

Esteemed Pierce County Councilmembers,
We, the undersigned, strongly oppose a resolution that would create a prominent, permanent display of the words “In God We Trust” in the Pierce County Council Chambers.

The resolution describes the phrase as “inspiring” and provides “a profound source of strength and guidance”. On the contrary: it hardly does so for all Pierce County residents. According to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, 25% of Washington adults have no religion, and Pew Research Center reports that one in three young adults in America is nonreligious. Additionally, the term “God” is rooted in a Judeo-Christian tradition that excludes adherents of minority religions as well as nonbelievers.

A far cry from celebrating our national heritage, the Council’s adoption of the motto would harken to a time in our national history when atheism, Humanism, and communism were conflated and reviled; the phrase only usurped our national motto in 1956 during the Cold War.

As James Madison wrote in 1788: “There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. Its least interference with it, would be a most flagrant usurpation.”

Pierce County Council, refrain from intermeddling. Remain representative of all your constituents, and do not display divisive and exclusive messages in our Chamber.

 

Humanists of Washington

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Note: The email field is for potential updates about the motion, it will not be shared with anyone, anywhere, period.    You may leave it blank if you wish to do so.

AS THE MEETING THAT THIS LETTER WAS INTENDED FOR HAS ALREADY TAKEN PLACE, NO NEW SIGNATURES ARE BEING SOUGHT.   PLEASE CHECK BACK FOR OUR RESPONSE TO TODAY’S MEETING