A Secular Christian Nation
Their ‘gotcha’ always goes like this:
That thing about separation of church and state? It’s not in the U.S. Constitution. You won’t find those words anywhere in that document, and most especially not in combination with each other.
I get anything wrong here? Those who use this particular tactic continue to lay out a number of views along these lines, though most tend to adhere to the general idea that (therefore) the Constitution places no restrictions upon us for things like school prayer, the name of God on our money, and a judge’s right to stick some two-and-one-half ton monument to a set of religious edicts in an Alabama courthouse. Because you see, the Constitution defines no demarcation to keep our political governance and our faith from intermixing.
And you know what? They’re right; the Constitution doesn’t say that. Well, not explicitly. In case you’re not up on the American history thing, the phrase comes from Thomas Jefferson, in an 1802 letter he wrote to a Baptist congregation while he was president. He was attempting to allay their fear about the creation of a national religion (ironic, that is). It really isn’t the Constitution that makes any direct comment upon this. It’s just a founding father and one of our most important Americans addressing it head on. So obviously you can ignore it.
But you’re right, guys. I admit it: our Constitution does not word for word lay out a contract of “separation of church and state.” You definitely got us their. So, should I accede victory and allow my kids to be forced to pray to the Almighty before gym class? Nope. Sorry, but there’s a trivial issue left over in all this I’d like to clear up.
You see, most of the same people (from the argument above) assert that the U.S. was founded on Christian ideals. They claim that a number of founding fathers were Christian (incorrectly, as many were deists, not theists; but religious belief is religious belief, right?) and like to reference a number of “founding documents” to push their point, such as the Declaration of Independence (“…all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…“), Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (…that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom…“), the Pledge of Allegiance (“one nation under God…“), and of course, our legal tender’s use of the Lord’s name (in vain?).
None of these are considered foundation stones for the creation of the United States. For certain they are all important; not founding, though. But I’ll let that pass. Focusing specifically on the issue of this country being a Christian one, I must ask where in the Constitution this is mentioned? I’ve read through the entire document (really, it’s not that hard to do), and the words “Christian,” “Christianity,” “Jesus” and “Christ” fail to appear anywhere within it. Maybe I have an edited version?
And not one mention of “God.” (Ok, there is one “Lord,” but that’s only to timestamp the damn thing. [subliminal nod to AL]) I mean really, you wouldn’t expect a people founded upon such a powerful faith to be so negligent as to fail to mention this in their mission statement. A shame our forefathers (and foremothers!) left us to interpret their intent here, eh?
Author: Kaf Oseo
Categories: Blasphemy
Comments: (2) · Leave a comment · Comments RSS2 · Trackback URL
Roger Williams was the original separationist. His life work seemed to be to separate the church from the government and vice versa. He finally succeeded with the formal Charter (1763) from King Charles II that firmly established Rhode Island with the separation. In a 1644 paper defending his doctrine on that to John Cotton, leader of the Massachusets colony, he used this expression: “… they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world..” The Framers were all familiar with his work and they referred to the Rhode Island system when they adopted the clause: “…but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification for Office or public Trust under the United States.” The Charter of Rhode Island and that clause in Article VI of the Constitution form the basis for government having no power over the conscience and religious practices of anyone anywhere in this nation. Jefferson’s phrase was merely an allusion to Williams’ statement and his efforts toward separation. But our history lessons didn’t give Williams much credit for that, as they should have.
And to further support your point…check out the First Amendment (which is officially part of the Constitution). It doesn’t literally say “a wall of separation between church and state”, but the establisment clause is pretty clear.