Ohio’s motto has become a victim of yet another twisted interpretation of the Constitution.

Tuesday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared that “With God All Things Are Possible“ is a government endorsement of religion, and, thus, unconstitutional.

The court’s ruling is inaccurate and unfortunate but, luckily, it is not final. Gov. Bob Taft has pledged to take the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court. On his side is a 1998 ruling that recognized the motto’s principle as generally theistic.

Ohio did not in 1959 adopt its motto with the intention of promoting one religion over another. Ohioans are free to practice any religion they choose.

Our Founding Fathers cherished the idea of freedom of religion. They did, however, see danger in government-mandated freedom from religion.

In 1802, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to a concerned Baptist congregation in Connecticut. In this letter, he used the phrase “building a wall between church and state” to assure the church members that the federal government was constitutionally prohibited from establishing a national church.

But over the past 50 years, liberal activists have taken Jefferson’s phrase out of context and inextricably intertwined it with the Establishment Clause. Part of the Bill of Rights, the clause prohibits Congress from making any law “respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” Clearly, this protects the right of individuals to choose their faith but it does not chase God and faith out of the public square.

If Jefferson alive today, some of his own actions would be declared unconstitutional, according to the meaning courts now attribute to his words. As president of the United States and the Washington, D.C., school system, Jefferson mandated that the Bible be a primary reading text. .

And George Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address held this warning: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports . . . reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

Washington saw value in religion as something to which Americans could look for guidance and support as the young country aged and expanded. The legislators who adopted Ohio’s motto undoubtedly valued the phrase for similar reasons.

Our motto was not intended to promote a specific religion or force certain beliefs on Ohioans. Instead, it refers to a higher power from which we can draw strength and comfort, if we choose.

The motto implies a challenge for self- betterment, and that solid ethics must be at the root of all of our actions as individuals and communities. It inspires and instructs that with faith and hard work any challenge can be met.

Ohio’s motto should not be banned. Rather, its meaning and purpose should reverberate through the halls of the Statehouse, in the classrooms of our schools and the living rooms of our homes.