The council of a Pennsylvania county voted on Tuesday to nix plans to post "In God We Trust" in its chambers, CBS Pittsburgh reported.
Allegheny County Council voted 8-6 against the measure to place the national motto in county chambers, with those in favor falling two votes short of the eight needed for it to pass.
Rich Fitzgerald, the county's executive, said passing such a measure would have gone against the region's love all, serve all stance on religion.
Those who are "Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist, Muslim, Islamic or any other non-theistic group" might find the motto offensive, Fitzgerald said, according to the station.
The Democrat executive believes the measure is "a movement by the right wing evangelical Christians across the county basically to impose Christianity."
Only one Democrat out of 15 council members voted for the display, which would have included the state motto "Virtue, Liberty and Independence," according to the Associated Press. E Pluribus Unum, which means "out of many, one," was also included in the measure that was approved by the council's government reform committee.
Fitzgerald may be fighting to maintain the county's all-inclusive attitude, but there are other excerpts from Christian doctrine around the county, namely the Ten Commandments inscribed outside the Allegheny County Courthouse. It's been there for more than 100 years.
He said that was different because "it has a historical significance," CBS Pittsburgh reported. The new measure is "trying to put something new, something branding on the courthouse that basically is non-inviting."
But Councilwoman Sue Means, a Republican who supports the measure, doesn't see it that way.
"It's our national motto," said Means, who is also an evangelical Christian, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "It's patriotism. It's history."
