Commentary: For New Mexico’s upcoming legislative session, the governor has proposed a budget that would allocate lavish spending throughout our education system, create a new Early Childhood Education and Care department, endow a new early childhood trust fund, establish scholarships to make in-state tuition free and boost the public school budget to $3.4 billion.
Whether all these proposals are approved or not, four lawmakers are also proposing mandatory displays of the national motto, “In God we trust,” in every school and college classroom, in every public library and on every public building, and on our license plates.
Similar proposals are under consideration in Indianaand Missouri, and Louisiana schools posted mandatory displays of the motto last year. In previous years, other states have debated such proposals as well as the pledge of allegiance. Arguing over the appropriate ways of signaling nationalism and religious faith is a favorite American pastime.
The proposed benefit of house bill 115 is unity and national pride. In one interview, state Rep. David Gallegos, R-Eunice, said, “I’m hoping this will bring us back to America first, so we’re not as divided as we are right now.” He added: “Looks like anything we do right now is divisive, and this might be one thing we can all agree on.”
I write these words in a coffee shop that I frequent, where crosses appear on the wall and there is often Christian-oriented pop music playing. Patrons and staff who are avowed Christians probably experience this very differently than someone who, like me, is either not religious or do not worship in the Judeo-Christian idiom. If I ran a coffee shop with the Heart Sutra displayed on the walls and recordings of Buddhist chants over the speakers, it would surely strike many customers as foreign; yet Judeo-Christian symbology is socially normed, and dominant in ways likely invisible to the faithful.
American courts continually reject first amendment lawsuits over references to God in the pledge of allegiance and the current national motto. Legal precedent posits the notion of a “ceremonial deism,” essentially arguing that these references to God are not theological but a ritual patriotic expression. Your government cannot endorse a particular religious denomination or church, but asking you to affirm the existence of a god (at least for politeness’ sake) is not considered indoctrination.
Many plaintiffs have attempted to challenge this, to no avail. Legal precedent refuses to distinguish patriotism from affirming belief in a god, at least ceremonially. This strikes some as plenty divisive, but the law doesn't see it that way.
In another interview, Gallegos called HB 115 “a first step in how we introduce back some of our founding fathers’ ideals.” There is an alternative that achieves this and sidesteps the debate over religious belief altogether. Instead of the motto adopted in 1956 as a rebuff to Soviet Russia, they could propose displays of the original national motto, “E pluribus unum.”
The Latin expression of “from the many, one” is linked by tradition both to the Psalms and the writings of Cicero, who was a crucial inspiration to the classically educated founders. As the Roman statesman wrote, “When each person loves the other as much as himself, it makes one out of many.”
That sentiment sweetly parallels the pledge to our state flag, which is still sometimes recited along with the pledge of allegiance: "I salute the flag of the state of New Mexico and the Zia symbol of perfect friendship among united cultures."
If displaying a motto everywhere is needed to unite or advise us, this one might serve better, embracing the history of the union as well as New Mexico’s rich diversity.