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Is America a Christian Nation?
Historically and politically, no
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Founders were Deists. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.: "John Adams was a
Unitarian, which Trinitarians abhorred as heresy. Thomas Jefferson,
denounced as an atheist, was actually a deist who detested organized
religion and who produced an expurgated version of the New Testament
with the miracles eliminated. Jefferson and James Madison, a nominal
Episcopalian, were the architects of the Virginia Statute of Religious
Freedom. James Monroe was another Virginia Episcopalian. John Quincy
Adams was another Massachusetts Unitarian."
Declaration of Independence ("endowed by their Creator...") is not a
part of law, neither is Bible a part of common law (English practice,
not Christian), nor are the 10 commandments. Just in passing, one could
argue that the coveting of thy neighbor's good is the bedrock of the
American economy.
In 1992, the sociologists Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, following a
careful analysis of data collected by the Bureau of Census and others,
concluded that on the eve of the American Revolution only about 17
percent of Americans belonged to churches. By the start of the Civil War
the figure was 37 percent, by 1906 it was slightly more than half, and
in 1926 this had increased to 56 percent. The numbers continued to rise
until by 1980 church adherence was about 62 percent. In short, America
appeared to be more religious in the year Ronald Reagan was elected
President than in the days of the Founding Fathers.
"The religious right today wants only half of the laissez faire ideal to
which the founders of this country adhered. They accuse those we call
liberals today of abandoning the founders' faith in economic laissez
faire, and there is much truth to this accusation. But they themselves
have abandoned the other half of our founder's ideals, religious
laissez-faire, in the name of a restored religious tyranny, the
religious correctness of a revived Chrstian commonwealth." "The Godless
Constitution," by Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore
Is America a Christian Nation?
Polls, elected political leaders, yes
In 1988, the highly respected Gallup Organization reported that nine
Americans in ten said they never doubted the existence of God, eight in
ten said they believed they will be called before God on Judgment day to
answer for their sins, eight in ten believed that God still works
miracles, and seven in ten believed in life after death.
What psychologist Paul C. Vitz calls Consumer Christianity. "Millions of
Americans today feel free to buy as much of the full Christian faith as
seems desirable. The cost is low and customer satisfaction seems
guaranteed."
An in-depth random survey of 4,001 Americans, conducted by a team of
political scientists and published in 1993, concluded that 30 percent of
Americans are totally secular in outlook, 29 percent are barely or
nominally religious, 22 percent are modestly religious, and only 19
percent-about thirty-six million people-regularly practice their
religion.
A USA Today/Gallup Poll in 2002-JAN showed that almost half of American
adults appear to be alienated from organized religion. If current trends
continue, most adults will not call themselves religious within a few
years. Results include: * About 50% consider themselves religious (down
from 54% in 1999-DEC) * About 33% consider themselves "spiritual but not
religious" (up from 30%) * About 10% regard themselves as neither
spiritual or religious.
"This country, which abandoned an established church first, has kept an
informal test for its highest office the longest." - Godless
Constitution
Historical context
History of "dissent" in England
The Test and Corporation Acts (1673), directed at Catholics, required
all holders of civil or military offices under the British crown receive
the sacrament according to the rites of the Anglican Church.
Non-subscribers could not run for office
Non-Anglicans could not matriculate from Oxford or Cambridge.
Main targets were Protestants: Baptists, Presbyterians, Independents,
Congregationals, Unitarians and Quakers
Once arrived in America, some sought to establish a Christian
commonwealth -- and they perpetuated many of the same institutions that
drove them from England: required tithes for church support, required
church attendance, crimes of heresy
Arguments for separation of church and state
Secular
Historical logic: being a Christian is neither necessary nor
sufficient...
to ensure good rulers (many pre-Christian exemplary rulers -- Caesar,
Alfred the Great -- studied by Founders). Jimmy Carter a fine Christian
and a fine man, arguably not a great ruler. Many religious tyrants.60%
of Founders had college degree -- highly unusual for the time.
to ensure good citizens. In addition to Christians, many law-abiding
members of other faiths; many agnostics and atheists. Prominent
Christian criminals - Jimmy Baker, Catholic priests.
Appeal to authority: the intent of the Founders
The constitution
What they said:
First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
No religious test for public office. Article VI, Clause 3 of our
Constitution states "...no religious Test shall ever be required as a
Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
Not "as long as they are Christians." It forbids any religious test.
Godless by design
Ratification debate: what they meant:
Christian preamble to Constitution rejected. And again when introduced
in Civil War -- the godless constitution was the cause of "our national
tragedy and trial." Not slavery. Ignored in 1864, 1869 - no sponsors,
1894, 1910, 1945.
Defenders of religious test - rejected
Inescapable solution: the founders knew what they were doing, and
why. Moreover, this was a compelling majority opinion at the time of our
nation's creation
Treaty of Tripoli (1797): "[T]he government of the United States is not,
in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…."
Jefferson letter to Baptists: "I contemplate with sovereign reverence
that act of the whole American people which declared that their
legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of
separation between church and State."
It was essential to "build an impenetrable wall of separation between
things sacred and civil," Scottish dissenting minister and political
write James Burgh. His book "Crito," published in London 1767, response
to British 1673 test and Corporation Acts.
Madison veto: Madison shared Jefferson's broad construction of the 1st
amendment. He led bill of Rights, as floor manager, to adoption. As
president, he vetoed a bill to give the Episcopal church a charter in
the District of Columbia to dispense charity and education to the poor.
This is what today we would call a faith-based initiative. Madison said
the legislation violated the 1st Amendment and "would be a precedent for
giving to religious societies as such a legal agency in carrying into
effect a public and civic duty." The bill would blur and indeed erase
"the essential distinction between civil and religious function."
Jefferson: "... it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are
twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782 Thus religious laws
interfered with liberty, as expressed in John Locke's idea of the
liberal state.
Arguments for separation of church and state
Religious
States usurps authority of church, deciding matters of personal
conscience. Are we accountable to God or to state for our BELIEFS? If
the state can mandate our tithes, and prohibit us from office and
education, then it can decide many other matters of doctrine. That
wasn't conjecture to the Baptists, that was recent history.
Religion becomes
a tool of political power, setting up competition among religious
leaders, corrupting spiritual message
- School
prayer: pray in secret (Matthew 6:5-6)
- Ten
Commandments: a graven image despite Protestant and Hebrew 2nd law
- Faith-based
initiatives
- Little
evidence that state has ever produced a godly people -- only
hypocritical leaders and oppressed, disenfranchised citizens
Religious encroachments:
The first happened in 1863, when Christian leaders pushed through a new
stamp, to be printed on all our money: "In God we Trust." Under these
same leaders, many of whom argued for the Biblical sanctioning of
slavery, the nation entered a searing civil war.
The second abridgment of the Founders' vision occurred in 1912. A group
of Christian evangelicals succeeded, after long and acrimonious
lobbying, to end the long tradition of Sunday federal mail service.
The third happened in 1954. The Pledge of Allegiance -- itself the work
of Francis Bellamy, both a Baptist minister and an avowed Socialist --
was altered by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to include the phrase
"under God." This addition, ironically, was made following the charge
that, without such a religious declaration, the Pledge could be recited
even in the Godless Soviet (Socialist) nation.
What next?
Don't have to be disagreeable to disagree
But must repeatedly answer the charge, challenge the historical
distortions
The Texas Republican Party Platform, 2002: "Our Party pledges to exert
its influence to restore the original intent of the First Amendment of
the United States Constitution and dispel the myth of the separation of
Church and State. We support the right of individuals and state and
local governments to display symbols of our faith and heritage. We call
on Congress to sanction any country that is guilty of persecuting its
citizens because of their religious beliefs."
Focus on the Family, repeated assertions about the Christian roots of
our country, including James Dobson's "To read the Constitution as the
charter for a secular state is to misread history .... The Constitution
was designed to perpetuate a Christian order."
This is simply false, and we cannot ratify such statements by our
silence.
To avoid conflict, textbook authors have simply deleted the religious
history of America - a fascinating story about remarkable people and
times
The attempt to subsume religion in the state is,
finally, to REPLACE the church with the state
To transfer responsibility for spiritual behavior to the state.
- growth of
church attendance from 10-17% at founding of nation to over 60% today
- obviously,
current setup has promoted growth of churches, not inhibited
- "If moral
decline is evidenced by the rate of divorce, the amount of
extramarital sex, and the increase of abortions, all part of the
record cited by [Pat} Robertson, then clearly the 90 percent of the
Americans whom Robertson cites to prove that the United States is a
Christian nation are deeply implicated in the decline." - Godless
Constitution
- what is the
church doing about these things -- making political recommendations?
- transfer
argument back to church: they fail because the state is more powerful?
The State is the only authority that matters?
To give the state the authority to compel belief and practice is
contrary to private conscience: a repudiation of the lessons of history.
- ultimately,
an abandonment of the historic mission of the church: transformation
from within. Instead, coercion from without.
- which has
ultimately proved more enduring: Caesar or Christ? Why do so many of
today's Christians still put their faith in political princes?
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A betrayal of the principles of the nation. Or in the words of Thomas
Jefferson: "I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against
every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
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