The Dollar Bill

I gave each of my four Citizenship students a dollar bill and instructed them to look at it carefully. We discussed whose portrait was on it. Then I began to explain the symbolism of the Great Seal, shown in two circles on the reverse side of the dollar bill, the pyramid, the eye, the eagle clutching arrows and an olive branch, etc.

They looked closely. Haoying and Liyuan are an elderly Chinese couple (in their 70s, I believe, but very healthy and active). Then there's Fitsum, a young man from Ethiopia, and Victoria, from El Salvador. I felt a special closeness with Fitsum and Victoria ever since the day they were my only students to attend, and somehow, we got into a discussion about God. Fitsum asked if I believed in God, and I told him honestly. Anyway, I'd assumed he was Muslim, but come to find out, he's Orthodox Christian. And rather than being Catholic, Victoria is evangelical. It was a wonderful discussion in which we three discovered the similarities of our beliefs.

But now Haoying and Liyuan, who came from Shanghai, were in class, so I didn't linger on the symbolism about God. I just mentioned that the eye above the pyramid meant God, or God's guidance.

It was Haoying who noticed the "In God We Trust." So they wanted to know what "trust" meant. I didn't do a very good job explaining it. Haoying asked, "Does everyone American believe God?" I said, "No, but many people do." And our laws come from that belief, I wanted to add, but didn't. She fingered the phrase on the dollar bill, then said, very quietly, "There are people in China don't believe God. Believe nothing. From children, they think no god. But here, people believe. In God we trust."

I was taken aback. They came from Communist China. And Communism has a heritage of denying God and religion. I'd assumed Haoying and Liyuan were like the people she spoke of. But maybe not! There wasn't time or opportunity to ask Haoying about it, but I will be more ready for the chance to have a great discussion with her about God.

And then today, Newsweek has come out with an article about the death of Christianity in the US! It may be true that the numbers are falling to the wayside from true belief, but perhaps the people those numbers represent did not truly believe even before. Perhaps they just attended church as a cultural thing. Now, it seems to me that the people who remain or have returned to the church are stronger than ever in their belief. We're clinging even more tightly!