Since When Was The United States Founded On "In God We Trust"

Joe Scarborough is apparently doing a series on the topic:

If America was founded on the words “in God we trust", Joe asks "Why are so many liberal elites so against religion?"

(The current MSNBC page doesn’t have this ad but this cashed one does.)

Well, first lets ignore the inaccurate statement about liberal. Since when was our country founded on ‘In God We Trust’? That particular phrase on our money dates back to 1864 over 80 years after the founding of our country. The phrase was invented at this time to be used instead of the "Our Country; Our God" or "God, Our Trust"

The Constitution of the United States nor its predecessor the Articles of Confederation do not mention God a single time (the latter is dated “In the Year of Our Lord”, a convention at the time) so where do people get the idea that the United States was founded on Christian values? If Christian values were so important to the Founding Fathers you would think they would have codified the 10 Commandments into the Constitution instead of the First Amendment that reads, “Congress will make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”

To my mind the Bill of Rights exemplifies the founding principles of the United States of America. A lot of thought and debate went into their writing. It wasn’t just slapped down in the spur of the moment. The Constitution laid down how our government was supposed to work; the Bill of Rights laid down the core principles that concerned the Founding Fathers so much they had to be explicitly delineated.

Where is the mention of Christian Values, or for that matter where are the values delineated in the Bill of Rights mentioned in the Bible? I’m no Biblical scholar, but freedom of religion seems to go against the 10 Commandments. The first Commandment says (depending on translation) “I am the Lord Thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.” Not exactly religious tolerance.

I’m not knocking Christianity I’m just saying that our country wasn’t founded on Christian principles. Our country was founded on the principles of the Enlightenment a radical school of thought brought forth for the first time that the power of government should come FROM the people not be imposed UPON the people.

Send Joe Scarborough (joe@msnbc.com) a letter telling him he really needs stop spouting misinformation.