By Jim Schneider, Executive Director, VCY America
This past July 30th marked the 65th Anniversary of the date in 1956 when President Dwight D.
Eisenhower signed a law which officially declared our nation’s motto to be, “In God We Trust.” And
though it appears on our currency and coinage and though it is on display in various public buildings, it
grieves me to think how far we have declined in truly recognizing the words of this motto!
There are great efforts underway to undermine and destroy our nation’s trust in God and to replace God
with government, to replace Him with luxury or to replace Him with personal pleasure. Instead of
trusting God, our nation is rapidly removing recognition of Him from every aspect of the public square. What once was prayer before many governmental meetings and legislative bodies has been reduced to a
moment of silence. Other forms of ridicule are also taking place. Such is the case of a Homer, Alaska
City Council meeting in 2019 that actually featured the pastor of the “Church of the Flying Spaghetti
Monster” delivering the opening prayer. (Yes, this really did happen.) Increasingly God and
Christianity are openly mocked and belittled on numerous fronts.
Morality, once revered in our nation, is in a freefall. Never before have we seen an emphasis on
LGBTQ+ “pride” as we did this past June. Corporations are bowing to the bullying tactics of those
demanding their agenda be celebrated. Broadcast media conducted special interviews. Programming
designed for children from Blue’s Clues to Sesame Street has been used to indoctrinate preschool
children in homosexuality. More recently “Gonzo” from Muppet Babies was presented as a cross-
dresser. All of this is an effort to promote these lifestyle choices as being “normal” when it is just the
opposite.
And now this agenda is demanding compliance from Christian institutions and individuals. On the very
day of the 65th anniversary of our national motto, Alliance Defending Freedom filed a brief before the 8th
Circuit Court of Appeals in defense of the College of the Ozarks. This is a Christian institution that is
fighting a Biden administration directive that would force them to open up its sex-specific dorms and
showers to members of the opposite sex. On another front, ADF is defending the religious rights of a
Christian baker where LGBTQ+ advocacy is trying to force him to design a cake to celebrate
transgenderism.
July last month the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a story of a group that is organizing the city’s first
“Naked Bike Ride” where participants are encouraged to “bare as you dare.” While this is outrageous
enough, the group has planned this to take place on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, a time in which our
country mourns and remembers thousands of lives lost in Islamic terrorist attacks on our land. Man has
clearly lost his way and is well down the path of doing that which is right in his own eyes. Sadly, we
see our nation fast eroding.
Joining this societal fray is a growing number of churches who find it more important to be popular and
“politically correct” than to be Biblically-correct. Many are succumbing to the praise of men rather than
the praise of God. I thank God for pastors and churches that are standing upon the authority of God’s
Word! Sadly, the growing chorus of the world is enticing compromise within the church. As a result,
many are joining the mainstream. Scripture calls this the broad path that leads to destruction.
It is critical for us to recall the words from a March 30, 1863 proclamation in which President Abraham
Lincoln called for a National Day of Prayer and Fasting. In that proclamation he stated:
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many
years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has
ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in
peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the
deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue
of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of
redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to
humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and
forgiveness.
Indeed, our nation has forgotten God. This is why the ministry of VCY America is critical! Our
mission/general purpose is “to serve as a resource for and extension of the Church of Jesus Christ,
God’s chosen agency, partnering with local churches in reaching the lost, edifying the body of Christ,
and advancing the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by every Biblically legitimate and
effective means.”
Truly in these troubling times, it is only the power of the Gospel that will change the heart of mankind.
This is why it is crucial for each individual to repent, turn from their wicked ways and seek the face of
God!
May our national motto, “In God We Trust” be more than a cliché; it must truly emit from our life. May
we sincerely proclaim with the psalmist, “I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress:
my God; in him will I trust.” (Psalm 91:2)
