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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The phrase “separation of church and state” is but a metaphor to describe the underlying principle of the First Amendment and the no-religious-test clause of the Constitution. That the phrase does not appear in the text of the Constitution assumes much importance, it seems, only to those who may have once labored under the misimpression it was there and later learned they were mistaken. To those familiar with the Constitution, the absence of the metaphor commonly used to describe one of its principles is no more consequential than the absence of other phrases (e.g., Bill of Rights, separation of powers, checks and balances, fair trial, religious liberty) used to describe other undoubted Constitutional principles.
ReplyDeleteSome try to pass off the Supreme Court's decision in Everson v. Board of Education as simply a misreading of Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists--as if that is the only basis of the Court's decision. Instructive as that letter is, it played but a small part in the Court's decision. Perhaps even more than Jefferson, James Madison influenced the Court's view. Madison, who had a central role in drafting the Constitution and the First Amendment, confirmed that he understood them to "[s]trongly guard[] . . . the separation between Religion and Government." Madison, Detached Memoranda (~1820). He made plain, too, that they guarded against more than just laws creating state sponsored churches or imposing a state religion. Mindful that even as new principles are proclaimed, old habits die hard and citizens and politicians could tend to entangle government and religion (e.g., "the appointment of chaplains to the two houses of Congress" and "for the army and navy" and "[r]eligious proclamations by the Executive recommending thanksgivings and fasts"), he considered the question whether these actions were "consistent with the Constitution, and with the pure principle of religious freedom" and responded: "In strictness the answer on both points must be in the negative. The Constitution of the United States forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion."
I agree with you that many of the founders were religious and Christian. Care should be taken, though, not to make too much of the founders' individual religious beliefs. In assessing the nature of our government, the religiosity of the various founders, while informative, is largely beside the point. Whatever their religions, they drafted a Constitution that plainly establishes a secular government on the power of the people (not a deity) and says nothing substantive of god(s) or religion except in the First Amendment where the point is to confirm that each person enjoys religious liberty and that the government is not to take steps to establish religion and another provision precluding any religious test for public office. This is entirely consistent with the fact that some founders professed their religiosity and even their desire that Christianity remain the dominant religious influence in American society. Why? Because religious people who would like to see their religion flourish in society may well believe that separating religion and government will serve that end and, thus, in founding a government they may well intend to keep it separate from religion. It is entirely possible for thoroughly religious folk to found a secular government and keep it separate from religion. That, indeed, is just what the founders did.
Wake Forest University recently published a short, objective Q&A primer on the current law of separation of church and state. I commend it to you. http://www.adl.org/religious_freedom/WFU-Divinity-Joint-Statement.pdf
The Founders said that it is a “no brainer “(that’s the self evident part) – God gave us our rights – life, liberty and the pursuit of happines which at the time of the Founding of this country meant the pursuit of virtue. In our increasingly secular society, we have traveled a long way away from the Founders’ and God’s vision for us and our country. None the less God did not create us as automatons but as free thinking people who can choose to worship Him or not. I can’t help but think America was inspired in the hearts and minds of our Founders by our Creator who wanted the liberty He gave us to echo in the government of men. How I wish we would aspire to their greatness in our political and spiritual lives today.
ReplyDeleteI'd recommend everyone, especially the first commenter, listen to our National Anthem's second verse. http://www.breitbart.tv/former-marine-stuns-crowd-at-georgia-tea-party-event/
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