Putting "In God We Trust" along with "under God" that is in the Pledge of Allegiance were a product of a Red Scare that afflicted the United States from 1945 on.
The Republican Party, who had effectively walled itself off from the Presidency, and the Congress for that matter, for nearly twenty years because of the Great Depression, was desperate for ANY method to gain back some political power. And what better than the "godless" Soviet Union"?
So the great con began, painting the world as a struggle between godless Communism and Conservative Values: Liberty (let corporations do anything they want, hate union; etc).
Meanwhile the Soviet Union was rebuilding for forty years following WWII. Americans were duped by BOTH parties that the Russians were this powerful force who threatened to destroy the west. The TRUTH was that the United States was by far the strongest nation on the planet, both militarily and economically. Fifty million plus died in WWII, about 400,000 of them Americans.
Absolutely none of the United States infrastructure had been touched by the war. All of Europe and much of Asia was in shambles.
So America had no peer, nobody even close; save itself.
And the fear mongers went right to work, to "Make American Great Again", to protect from godless Communism by lurching to the right, adopting God in everything.
For what? Do you really think God smiles when we put HIS/HER name on a dollar bill, or line up kids to salute a flag (idol) and say "Under God"...what about the false idols part?
Jesus threw the money changers out of the temple to send a message, and the United States put GOD on currency?
And the Cold War was a con, and we now spend more money on defense than all the world combined, and WE are the greatest single threat for world annihilation than anybody......
