The first American coins did not have “In God We Trust” emblazoned on them. The current American motto was not adopted by Congress and minted on coins until 1956.
Our founders thought the essence of America was something more mundane even though they recognized the Sacred Hand of Providence had to have been on them or else they would have never defeated the greatest military force on Earth at the time, the British army and navy.
The first American penny had “Mind Your Business” emblazoned on them. Benjamin Franklin designed it. The slogan summed up the attitude of the framers of the Constitution as well as the new American citizens ― you take care of you and your family first, I will take care of me and my family first, and we will all live happily ever after.
At least that was the original hope for America.
Everything about the physical human body has improved over the past 200 years. We are living about double the lifespan of a person living in Colonial America, primarily due to a massive drop in child mortality rates. We are taller, stronger and healthier than virtually every civilization before us ― despite the fact modern Americans have terrible eating habits, which has resulted in over 70% of all Americans being obese or close to it.
However, there is one area that has not been improved by medical science, nutrition or simple natural selection ― the emotions of the human heart.
Evolution hasn’t been able to eradicate ― or even moderate ― the vagaries of human temperament and its propensity to anger, jealousy and violence in us and our fellow human beings. The ghastly daily news accounts of depressing reports of Hamas terrorists torturing Israeli hostages and gangs from Venezuela terrorizing law-abiding citizens in their own apartments sound like they come out of some medieval horror story or account of Visigoths from the north ransacking Rome, not 21st-century America.
One would think if natural selection were all it took to improve the human condition over time, human beings today would be the most peaceful, generous and full of lovingkindness generation in history the world over.
It hasn’t.
A recent reading of Colossians 3 brought this reality home. Written close to 2,000 years ago, Paul was admonishing new Christians to “put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”
He went on to say in his letter: “You must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. … Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”
“You were called to peace.” Mind your own business first, Paul seems to say. Control your own set of emotions and responses before you try to control the way anyone else lives and reacts to life, and America will always be a great place to live.
Maybe this is why Christ sent the Holy Spirit. He knew we are hard-wired to respond in anger to things and it would take a supernatural, extra-human “Helper” to help us change our nature.
Benjamin Franklin was no evangelical Christian or even a devout believer in anything other than perhaps an All-Knowing God Out There Somewhere, but he recognized the benefits of the Christian faith on the behavior of his new fellow American citizens. He was observed sneaking into the back of a church late in life and was asked by a regular parishioner why he was there on a nice Sunday morning.
Franklin purportedly replied that while he still had strong doubts about the divinity of Christ, he wanted to live in a society in America where everyone else believed it and governed themselves based on biblical precepts first and foremost.
No wonder Franklin wanted “Mind Your Business” on the coins he designed for the new Democratic Republic he helped establish. Each time a person made a transaction, they would be reminded of their responsibility to be moral, ethical citizens.
Maybe it is time to put the original American motto on all American currency from credit cards to crypto to lay the groundwork for a better future.