Americans United for Separation of Church and State has advised President Obama to ignore whining from Rep. John Boozman and pals about Obama’s references to the national motto.

“Given the state of the economy, the unemployment rate and the precarious state of world affairs, the president has a lot to do,” Barry Lynn of Washington, executive director of Americans United, said. “Members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, by contrast, appear to have a lot of time on their hands. … The Prayer Caucus should just admit that it is looking for any opportunity to bash the president. It’s not very Christian of them, but I expect nothing less from a body that takes its marching orders from the Religious Right.”

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Boozman and other members of the Prayer Caucus have complained that Obama erroneously referred to “E Pluribus Unum” as America’s national motto during a speech at Jakarta last month. “E Pluribus Unum” is Latin for “Out of many, one.” “E Pluribus Unum” appears on the Great Seal of the United States, which was codified in 1782, and on American coins. In 1956, during the McCarthy era, Congress designated “In God We Trust” as the official national motto.

Lynn called the Prayer Caucus’s complaint “one of the silliest manufactured controversies I’ve ever seen.”

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