Loyalty to God, country and family (in that order) are not incompatible with proper governance but rather increasingly necessary. The issue of separation of church and state in America, or the difference between ‘freedom of’ and ‘freedom from’ religion, is one of the most complicated and debated subjects in United States history, going back to before the drafting of the Constitution. Therefore, let us agree that we, as ordinary citizens not Supreme Court justices, are imperfect arbiters and should not be condemned for holding or having held onto a particular understanding of this subject.
During our nation’s formation and pre-founding history, the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights was interpreted strictly to mean that the national government should be prohibited ‘from’ establishing a formal religion. In fact, prior to, and even after the Constitution’s ratification in 1788, the majority of states had established religions, or at least religious requirements, for holding office (Rhode Island, as a safe-haven for religious dissidents, being one of the major exceptions). New Hampshire in particular required state legislatures be Protestant until 1877. Two landmark events completely eroded this strict interpretation. The first was the Fourteenth Amendment which expanded the protections of the Bill of Rights to the state level, and the second was Supreme Court case in 1947 (Everson v. Board of Education) in which two justices appointed by Franklin Roosevelt established a broad interpretation of the establishment clause to mean the separation of church and state, a term borrowed from Thomas Jefferson which was meant only to apply to the federal government. In recent years, freedom from religion has been the mainstream understanding of the establishment clause (felt to be implicit in freedom of religion) leading to attempts to remove “In God We Trust” from our currency, any mention of God in the pledge of allegiance, prayer groups in public school and the Ten Commandments from courtrooms, not to mention creating an odd situation where oaths of office and military creeds such as Semper Fidelis [to God, country and corps] are considered acceptable while requirement of belief in God to hold office is considered unconstitutional.
Regardless of current interpretations of the First Amendment, there is one important element America needs remember: this country is founded on Judeo-Christian values. Belief in God is the very basis for our Republican form of government. The founders believed that God is the source of moral standards and unalienable rights for which governments are instituted among men to secure. It is written in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Whereas communist nations view the state as sovereign, dictatorships view their dictator as sovereign and anarchies view the individual as sovereign, the system of government created by the founders views God as sovereign. In my opinion, the correct understanding on this issue is that there must be a jurisdictional separation between matters of church and state, but our philosophy of government does require that moral standards which respect human life, liberty, and property be enforced to protect and secure these rights among all people.
The worry that religious conviction will interfere with a public servant’s civic duties is not new (there was fear John F. Kennedy would make The United States subservient to the Pope and even Thomas Jefferson was careful to take heed of Jesus’ words, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s”). I sincerely believe we as a people, as a state and as a nation, need to understand and respect the philosophy of the government God inspired the founders to create. Like our founding fathers acknowledged “our Creator” in the Declaration of Independence, we need to retain the phrases “under God” in our pledge and “so help me God” in our oaths so that we do not lose sight of what we as a society have in common, our respect for life, liberty, and property. For further reading I would highly recommend this link http://iblp.org/iblp/news/2004/06/001/.
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