The nation’s motto will be displayed on the wall of the city council chamber, but the decision didn’t come without a heated discussion.

City council voted 3-2 Thursday night to approve a resolution supporting the display of a plaque stating “In God We Trust” in its chambers.

Mayor Tom Donaldson, who introduced the motion, Councilmen Cheri Scott and Richard Schontz Jr. supported the resolution.

Councilmen Kathy Kline and Bill May voted against it.

May made a speech of several minutes on why the city should reject the idea, saying the motto brings religion into a governmental building where it does not belong.

“We need to be welcoming of all people of all faiths, or of no faith,” May said. “This would make people with no faith feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.”

The city received an e-mailed request to display the motto in the City Building from the nonprofit organization In God We Trust~America, which claims to be dedicated to spreading the mission of patriotism.

The county commissioners voted last week to approve displaying a plaque with the phrase in the Butler County Judicial and Government Center after receiving the same request.

Commissioners Dale Pinkerton and Bill McCarrier voted for the resolution while Jim Eckstein opposed it.

May said the nonprofit group’s intention is to bring religion into the public forum, adding the saying was made the national motto in the 1950s in response to the Soviet Union, an atheist country.

Schontz defended the motto, saying council already brings religion to its meetings.

“If we’re going to have meetings without any religion, we should not bring a pastor in at the beginning,” he said.

Each month a pastor says a religious prayer after the council meeting is called to order.

Kline, who agreed with May, argued the opening invocation makes the plaque even more unnecessary.

“Then what’s the necessity in doing it again?” she asked Schontz. “We have to be welcoming of all our residents.”

May asked council members if they would accept a plaque supporting a religion different from their own.

“Would you approve a motion if that plaque said ‘One nation, under Allah?’” he said.

Schontz replied he wouldn’t, but argued the motto is more of a patriotic saying than a religious one.

“These are words that symbolize our country,” he said.

May disagreed.

“It’s a religious motto,” he said. “And we should not be endorsing a religion.”

Donaldson, feeling the meeting was getting out of hand, attempted to cut the discussion off and pounded his gavel, upsetting May.

“You can’t tell me I can’t speak,” May said.

Scott said the motto is on our currency, so there should be no problem with it in the chamber.

“It’s on our money,” she said. “Are people not still spending money?”

After the discussion, the motion carried to a lone cheer from one resident in attendance.

Donaldson said after the meeting the plaque would not be large.

“It won’t be obnoxious,” he said, adding he hopes a relative will donate one to the city.

Donaldson would not say whether the city would fight a legal battle should a lawsuit be brought before them from a resident or an advocacy group like the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Council would have to make that decision at that time,” he said.

City solicitor James Coulter said he does not anticipate any legal problems in displaying the motto.

The city is not the first municipality to follow the nonprofit’s desire, as more than 330 counties and municipalities across the country have adopted a similar resolution.

According to the nonprofit’s website, six other municipalities and counties in Pennsylvania have passed a similar resolution.

Congress on July 30, 1956, adopted “In God We Trust” as the national motto.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 1, 2011, voted 396 to 9 in favor of reaffirming the phrase as the nation’s motto.