A Father’s Faith That Changed A Nation
The children of the late Arkansas man whose grassroots effort led to “In God We Trust” adorning U.S. paper currency told The Christian Post that their father’s providential story shows “one person, with the Lord’s help, can make a difference.”
Matthew Rothert Sr., a Presbyterian furniture manufacturer and avid coin collector born in 1904, was at church in Chicago on June 21, 1953, when he believed the Holy Spirit impressed upon him the idea that “In God We Trust” should feature on American banknotes as it did on coins, according to his daughter, Alice Rothert Nelson.
“The collection plate was going around, and he felt God tell him that the coins had ‘In God We Trust,’ but it was the bills that went all around the world,” she told CP. “And he believed he should get ‘In God We Trust’ on the bills of the paper money, and so that started the campaign.”
“In God We Trust” was first engraved on U.S. coins during the Civil War, after Mark Richards Watkinson, a Baptist minister from Pennsylvania, petitioned then-Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase at the end of 1861 to promote “the recognition of the Almighty God in some form in our coins” amid the fading illusion of a short, relatively bloodless conflict.
A Simple Act With Big Consequences
Matthew Rothert Sr. was not a celebrity or a politician; he was an ordinary man who believed God deserved public honor. He pushed for a small but powerful change that declared America’s reliance on divine providence. That single act multiplied, shaping how a nation speaks about God in its daily life.
We live in a culture that treats faith as optional and private by default. Rothert’s story shows the opposite is true: when Christian’s step into the public square with courage and humility, history bends. The inscription on our money is a reminder that public faith matters and that symbolism can sustain moral memory.
Scripture teaches that God uses weak things to confound the strong. The change Rothert helped bring about was not driven by worldly power. It came from conviction and prayer, the kinds of tools every believer has at their disposal.
Legacy And Lessons For Today
We should not romanticize the past, but we must learn from it. The lesson is practical: faith without action is barren, and action without faith is hollow. Christians are called to bring light into public life, not retreat from it.
Practical engagement does not mean compromising the gospel. It means speaking truth plainly, voting thoughtfully, supporting leaders who honor biblical values, and blessing the common life through service. Those everyday choices add up faster than we think and shape the character of a nation over decades.
Rothert’s legacy also warns against despair. The scale of cultural change can be intimidating, but the Bible refuses to measure victory by short-term trends. Long obedience in the same direction bears fruit, often in ways we will only see years down the road.
Finally, his story is a call to families. Faith passed from parent to child is one of the most powerful engines of lasting influence. Teach your children to pray, to serve, and to stand for truth, and you pass on a witness that survives courts and curricula.
We live in a time that needs people who believe God can work through ordinary lives. Let Rothert’s example provoke courage, not nostalgia. Take the next small step God lays on your heart and trust that He multiplies it beyond what you can imagine.