By Allie Martin and Jody Brown
October 23, 2001

(AgapePress) - One principal at a northeast Mississippi elementary school has given every child in her school a button displaying the national motto "In God We Trust."

For several months, the American Family Association has been involved in a nationwide campaign to get America's national motto "In God We Trust" into every public school classroom in the country. Toward that end, the Tupelo, Mississippi-based group has distributed almost a quarter-million posters displaying the motto to schools, churches, and individuals from coast to coast.

While surfing the Internet last week, Alcorn County (Mississippi) Elementary principal Stephanie Clausel came across the AFA website and noticed that the national motto posters were also now available as buttons. That motivated her to do something for her school and her students.

"I saw the little poster that said 'In God We Trust', and underneath it said 'Buttons Now Available'," Clausel says. "So ... I decided I'd get buttons for all the adults. I'm telling one of the teachers about it, and she said, 'Oh, why can't we get them for the kids?' "

So Monday morning, Clausel personally gave out buttons to every elementary school student -- all 511 of them. Fourth-grader Jake Waldrop plans to wear his button every day, a button he says sends a strong message. "God's our Savior, and when we pray He helps us out," he says.

Nine-year-old Desire Hamm says she plans to wear her button "across my heart ... because I want everybody to know I'm going to trust in God."

Clausel says the buttons, in addition to being a patriotic gesture, provide "opportunities for these children to grow not only academically, but also to become the good citizens the [nation's] Founders envisioned."

And that, Clausel says, is much more important than the possibility of any legal action by any group that may be upset because of the distribution of the free buttons.

Significance of Motto
AFA founder and president Don Wildmon concurs with Principal Clausel. "For too long, groups like the ACLU and People for the American Way have used a mythical 'separation of church and state' argument to drive the knowledge of God out of our classrooms," Wildmon says. "As far as I'm concerned, their misdirected efforts -- and the failure of God-fearing persons to challenge them -- are a major reason our schools, and our society, are in the fix they are."

"It has been shown time and time again that faith in God was a major component in the founding of this country," he says. "And our own Congress voted in 1956 to make 'In God We Trust' our national motto. It's a patriotic issue, not a religious issue."

"There's no reason in the world why the motto should not be taught to every child in our schools and posted in every classroom," he says. "I hope every teacher in the country will buy enough buttons to give to every one of their students." [Visit InGodWeTrustPoster.com]

Wildmon and libertine groups like the ACLU have battled in the past over conservative and pro-family issues. He says he finds it intriguing that such groups have been "mysteriously silent" of late during the swell of patriotism following the terrorist attacks and the war on terrorism.

Steve Crampton, chief counsel for AFA's Center for Law & Policy, says the national motto reflects the foundational belief of the American people in God. "In our nation's charter, the Declaration of Independence, the Founders placed 'a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence' and made their appeal to 'the Supreme Judge of the world'," Crampton says. "Such trust in God undergirded the Founders, and is needed now more than ever."

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