Around a dozen people stood in front of the stage at Metro Tab Church on Sunday, each holding a various piece of U.S. currency, from a single cent to a $100 bill.
Steve Ball, lead pastor at Metro Tab, asked each of them to read the words inscribed on the back of the coin or bill.
“In God We Trust,” each person repeated.
“This country was established on religious freedom,” Ball told the crowd gathered for the July 4 “Freedom Celebration” at the church. “And this country was established on Judeo-Christian principles that we believe in. Somebody paid a price to get there and to keep it there. And now they want to take it off. They’re willing to take ‘In God We Trust’ off our currency. They’re willing to stop us from saying the pledge and take God out of the pledge. That’s the agenda.”
Some churches across the Chattanooga region celebrated Independence Day within their Sunday morning worship services, a tradition around 50 years old in parts of the Christian faith. While those in the congregations and the pastors leading them said the services are a chance to celebrate freedom and thank God for creating a country where people can worship freely, researchers who study evangelicalism said the explicit marrying of church and state are part of the larger culture of Christian nationalism, an ideology under increasing scrutiny.