The North Carolina House of Representatives has been meeting for about 250 years and each session has had about 100 members. 

That comes to around 25,000 folks who have served during all that time. We will assume that most of them were faithful, or at least nominal, church members and expressed a belief in God.

Before that there was the Colonial Assembly of the Province of North Carolina, and the first person ever to represent what is now Warren County was Edward Jones, who died in 1750 and was the ancestor of numerous present-day citizens of that county, including myself.

Is it not incredible, therefore, that none of those 25,000 representatives, with 250 years to think about it, ever wanted to plaster the motto “In God We Trust” on the dais of the House Chamber? They certainly had plenty of time and opportunity to think about it. And, as members of the Legislature go, a good number of them were probably Christians, or at least claimed to be. So, why didn’t they do it?

It was not until March 25, 2025, that the Holy Spirit-filled Republican majority decided to display its piety by calling for such a display. The vote on the measure was 100 to 17 in favor, with 30 trembling Democrats joining the majority.

Our Representative Rodney Pierce had the courage and integrity to vote “No.”

I know this because the other day in the mail I received an oversized, underhanded postcard telling me all about it, coming from the campaign office of Mr. Pierce’s primary opponent, former representative and pseudo-Republican Michael Wray

This righteous epistle tells us, in case we are too stupid to grasp the message, at least seven times that Pierce voted against “In God We Trust” and two or three other times that he is “crazy” and “too liberal” to represent the good people of Warren, Halifax, and Northampton counties.

Aside from the fact that it seems libelous and crude to call somebody “crazy” in print and mail it out to several thousand people, we have to ask ourselves two questions.

Why did the Republicans want to put up a totally unnecessary religious slogan in the House Chamber, and why did Mr. Pierce vote against it?

Perhaps it took the Republican Party 250 years to discover God. Now, we have all heard of Bible-thumping politicians who try to wrap themselves in the cloak of religion to get people to vote for them. This is one of the oldest varieties of fraud and fake religiosity that exists. 

This was just one more example of it. 

There’s probably more to the story that we don’t know about. After all, the postcard from Mr. Wray’s camp didn’t tell us much — just the same thing over and over again.

Mr. Pierce probably voted against the measure because it seems that he just couldn’t bear to hold his nose and vote “Yes” on such a blatant misuse of religious faith.

I applaud him for having the courage to do what is right.

“Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do.

“In God We Trust” is a wonderful phrase, but it becomes an empty phrase when it is cynically put to use for political purposes.

Enough said.

Rev. E. T. Malone, Jr.

Warrenton