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Why an activist plans to send ‘In God We Trust’ signs in Arabic to Texas schools : NPR


A prototype of the “In God We Trust” poster written in Arabic created by Chaz Stevens.

Chaz Stevens


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Chaz Stevens


A prototype of the “In God We Trust” poster written in Arabic created by Chaz Stevens.

Chaz Stevens

There are those who heed the “don’t mess with Texas” warning, and then there are those who do the exact opposite.

Activist Chaz Stevens is monday Coporation, group.

He is applying a Texas law that requires public schools to display signs and posters with the national motto “We Trust in God” in “visible places.” The law states that signs must be donated or purchased from private donations to the school.

Stevens, the living in Florida and is known for his recommendations to the local government, Hear from legislation about a week ago and told NPR he was excited by the move to bring religion – in this case Christianity – into schools.

“That’s going to upset you, whether you believe in God or not,” he said.

As far as he could tell, there was no requirement that the motto be written in English. He decided to start a fundraising campaign to send posters to schools around the state with slogans written in Arabic instead.

Chaz Stevens.

Brendan Farrington / AP


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Brendan Farrington / AP


Chaz Stevens.

Brendan Farrington / AP

“They didn’t say anything about the language,” Stevens said. “And as an artist, for me it’s always been art. So I thought, well, knowing what looks good … and then I suddenly realized that Arabic is beautiful.”

He said his goal with this campaign is the same as his previous efforts.

“It’s simple — it’s the power of hypocrisy, turning bureaucracies against themselves, figuring out what bureaucratic hypocrisy is,” says Stevens.

Texas law passed in final legislative session

The law was passed last summer. At the time, there was more concern about the pandemic than the signs – and only now more is being donated., Texas Tribes report.

State of the Republic of Sen. Bryan Hughes The author of receipt and shared updates like groups have started to donate to different districts and schools.

The law requires posters or signs to be donated or “purchased from private donations” and that the U.S. and Texas flags must be also shown on the poster. It “must not depict any words, images or other information.”

Although the law does not mention English as the only language that can be displayed, Hughes responds to Stevens . campaign news.

“Read the bill. The sign must have “In God We Trust” US flag, Texas flag and “not depicted” any other words or images, Hughes wrote. “Print what you like, but only these signs qualify under the law.”

Even so, Stevens continued with his plan. In less than a week, he lifted over $18,000 and counting to fund the purchase of signs.

Overall, he said, the response was “extremely supportive”, including thanks from filmmaker Quentin Tarantino on Instagram.

Stevens is expanding the design to include more languages

Feedback from the public also prompted Stevens to expand his design. He plans to include Spanish, Hindi and other languages. To make sure he has the right translation, Stevens said he is hiring translators for each language.

There’s still some design work to be done, but Stevens expects his posters to start arriving in Texas schools in the next two to three weeks.

Other organizations – including Republican Women’s groups Yellow Rose Texas and Patriot Mobile, which call themselves a conservative Christian wireless service provider, donated English-print posters to schools outside of Houston as in the Dallas metropolitan area.

Stevens said he doesn’t have a specific list of schools, but he is aiming to send signs to politically conservative and liberal areas.

“If I send out 500 signs, I expect 98% of them won’t go up. And that’s a win for me,” Stevens said. “Maybe two out of a hundred go up on a wall. And I want two. … That proves the point.”





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