Curtis Harris
Solving real problems - - Is there a place for God in government?
By Curtis Harris
I will start with a few facts. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...." In the last fifty years, atheists have used the First Amendment and the state and federal courts to remove God from government, public schools, public property and American public life in general. Also in the past fifty years, American society and government have become increasingly amoral while the Federal government has constantly gained power over the American people. Now, here is an opinion. Removing God from government and public life is a major reason our society and government are in moral and ethical decline.
America's Founders made a place for God in government while they broke the ties between religion and government. This was a critical distinction. They replaced Europe's old social model, in which religions and governments dominated people, with a new vision — Democracy. In their American model, God endowed people with rights and responsibilities. In turn, people created governments to actualize their rights and responsibilities in a moral society. Beyond basic rights and responsibilities, people were free to practice religion of their choosing.
The various forms of Christianity dominated the British colonies and early America. Protestant Christian religious groups founded some of the early colonies to escape persecution in Europe. Other colonies established the Church of England as the official religion. Religion was a much greater part of public and private life than it is today. The social norm called for membership in and visible support of one of the Christian churches. By the time the original states ratified our Constitution and its Amendments in 1791, the Founders' commitment to freedom and their membership in a variety of Christian churches made the separation of church and state, and religious freedom, principles they could support. Arriving at that consensus was not easy in all cases. The colonies had their share of religious intolerance. Some Virginia history will illustrate that point, as well as demonstrate that strict belief in Christianity was not a universal trait among the Founders.
Anglicans (the Church of England) dominated religion in colonial Virginia. The Anglican clergy received their salaries from the colonial government and general tax revenues. Laws persecuted people of other religions. Quakers did not baptize. Virginia made failure to baptize children a crime. Laws banned Quaker meetings. It was a crime for a ship's captain to bring Quakers into Virginia. Virginia arrested Quakers that did not swear oaths to the colony and crown. Virginia jailed expelled Quakers if they returned. Execution was the penalty for the third offense. If a Christian denied God or the divinity of the Scriptures, he lost many civil rights for his first offense. A second offense cost more civil rights and three years in jail. He could also lose custody of his children. Until 1776, Virginia arrested Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist evangelists for preaching without a license.
On a recent visit to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, our third president, I bought a small book titled Jefferson and Religion. It is an essay by historian Eugene R. Sheridan from The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, published by the Princeton University Press. The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation published the version I use as a source for this article in 1998.
Jefferson grew up in a Christian family in Anglican Virginia. He was first, and foremost, a rational man of the Enlightenment. After a religious crisis in the 1760s, Jefferson rejected church dogma and turned to natural religion based in his rational observation and analysis of his world. He did not accept the divinity of Jesus Christ, but he did believe deeply in the moral and ethical teachings contained in the New Testament texts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He could see the evidence of God the Creator in the natural laws that governed life. He studied Hebrew texts and the Koran. Moral and ethical conduct in civil society was his standard for judging people. Their particular religion was not important to him. Jefferson believed clergy and churches complicated religion so that they could become the path to knowledge of God. This gave them power over people. He knew, from history and direct experience in Virginia, that religious and state power combined to infringe upon people's natural rights. Jefferson wrote the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom to disestablish the Anglican Church in Virginia and counted its passage as one of the greatest accomplishments of his life. It took 10 years of effort before passage in 1786.
Jefferson kept his religious views private. Publicly, in the Declaration of Independence, he wrote of "the Laws of Nature" and "Nature's God." He acknowledged that people "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness...." In closing, he invoked the "Protection of divine Providence." Clearly, Jefferson was a man of God. However, he was not a man of the Church. This caused him much trouble in his political career. During the 1790s, his opponents labeled him an atheist working to undermine the Christian Church in America.
The First Amendment was a result of colonial history like that of Virginia. However, the Founders shared a common belief with the old colonial governments. They believed public order and moral conduct in society had their basis in religious values. The difference was the Founders rejected the state's role in establishing or supporting religion. They understood that the different Christian denominations would all serve equally well to instill ethics and morality in the American population. Their invocation of God, the Creator and divine Providence in the Declaration of Independence demonstrates they saw religious values as the foundation of societies and governments.
The primarily Protestant Christian denominations were the Founder's frame-of-reference. Great numbers of Catholics and Jews were yet to immigrate to America. Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and others arrived even later. It is a credit to the Founders that the First Amendment protects all of America's present-day religious diversity. It is a credit to all of these religions that they embrace the same basic moral and ethical codes. For most of our history, these basic codes united us as a society and a nation.
Our modern-day removal of God from government and public life has served to lessen our leaders' accountability to basic moral and ethical codes. We do not expect our leaders to have moral authority. Their political and economic power is all that matters. Freed from accountability to God's laws, our leaders take supreme power for themselves. Through regulations and entitlement programs, they make people dependent on government. Our leaders make laws that violate "the Laws of Nature" and "Nature's God." To them, government is the supreme power in society. To them, government is the only religion that matters. America began with the separation of church and state. A measure of our leader's success is that, today, to many Americans, the state is the church. One cannot find a more clear violation of the First Amendment.
America's Founders made a place for God in government. When we replace career politicians with citizen legislators, we will make that place possible again.
© Curtis Harris
I will start with a few facts. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...." In the last fifty years, atheists have used the First Amendment and the state and federal courts to remove God from government, public schools, public property and American public life in general. Also in the past fifty years, American society and government have become increasingly amoral while the Federal government has constantly gained power over the American people. Now, here is an opinion. Removing God from government and public life is a major reason our society and government are in moral and ethical decline.
America's Founders made a place for God in government while they broke the ties between religion and government. This was a critical distinction. They replaced Europe's old social model, in which religions and governments dominated people, with a new vision — Democracy. In their American model, God endowed people with rights and responsibilities. In turn, people created governments to actualize their rights and responsibilities in a moral society. Beyond basic rights and responsibilities, people were free to practice religion of their choosing.
The various forms of Christianity dominated the British colonies and early America. Protestant Christian religious groups founded some of the early colonies to escape persecution in Europe. Other colonies established the Church of England as the official religion. Religion was a much greater part of public and private life than it is today. The social norm called for membership in and visible support of one of the Christian churches. By the time the original states ratified our Constitution and its Amendments in 1791, the Founders' commitment to freedom and their membership in a variety of Christian churches made the separation of church and state, and religious freedom, principles they could support. Arriving at that consensus was not easy in all cases. The colonies had their share of religious intolerance. Some Virginia history will illustrate that point, as well as demonstrate that strict belief in Christianity was not a universal trait among the Founders.
Anglicans (the Church of England) dominated religion in colonial Virginia. The Anglican clergy received their salaries from the colonial government and general tax revenues. Laws persecuted people of other religions. Quakers did not baptize. Virginia made failure to baptize children a crime. Laws banned Quaker meetings. It was a crime for a ship's captain to bring Quakers into Virginia. Virginia arrested Quakers that did not swear oaths to the colony and crown. Virginia jailed expelled Quakers if they returned. Execution was the penalty for the third offense. If a Christian denied God or the divinity of the Scriptures, he lost many civil rights for his first offense. A second offense cost more civil rights and three years in jail. He could also lose custody of his children. Until 1776, Virginia arrested Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist evangelists for preaching without a license.
On a recent visit to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, our third president, I bought a small book titled Jefferson and Religion. It is an essay by historian Eugene R. Sheridan from The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, published by the Princeton University Press. The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation published the version I use as a source for this article in 1998.
Jefferson grew up in a Christian family in Anglican Virginia. He was first, and foremost, a rational man of the Enlightenment. After a religious crisis in the 1760s, Jefferson rejected church dogma and turned to natural religion based in his rational observation and analysis of his world. He did not accept the divinity of Jesus Christ, but he did believe deeply in the moral and ethical teachings contained in the New Testament texts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He could see the evidence of God the Creator in the natural laws that governed life. He studied Hebrew texts and the Koran. Moral and ethical conduct in civil society was his standard for judging people. Their particular religion was not important to him. Jefferson believed clergy and churches complicated religion so that they could become the path to knowledge of God. This gave them power over people. He knew, from history and direct experience in Virginia, that religious and state power combined to infringe upon people's natural rights. Jefferson wrote the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom to disestablish the Anglican Church in Virginia and counted its passage as one of the greatest accomplishments of his life. It took 10 years of effort before passage in 1786.
Jefferson kept his religious views private. Publicly, in the Declaration of Independence, he wrote of "the Laws of Nature" and "Nature's God." He acknowledged that people "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness...." In closing, he invoked the "Protection of divine Providence." Clearly, Jefferson was a man of God. However, he was not a man of the Church. This caused him much trouble in his political career. During the 1790s, his opponents labeled him an atheist working to undermine the Christian Church in America.
The First Amendment was a result of colonial history like that of Virginia. However, the Founders shared a common belief with the old colonial governments. They believed public order and moral conduct in society had their basis in religious values. The difference was the Founders rejected the state's role in establishing or supporting religion. They understood that the different Christian denominations would all serve equally well to instill ethics and morality in the American population. Their invocation of God, the Creator and divine Providence in the Declaration of Independence demonstrates they saw religious values as the foundation of societies and governments.
The primarily Protestant Christian denominations were the Founder's frame-of-reference. Great numbers of Catholics and Jews were yet to immigrate to America. Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and others arrived even later. It is a credit to the Founders that the First Amendment protects all of America's present-day religious diversity. It is a credit to all of these religions that they embrace the same basic moral and ethical codes. For most of our history, these basic codes united us as a society and a nation.
Our modern-day removal of God from government and public life has served to lessen our leaders' accountability to basic moral and ethical codes. We do not expect our leaders to have moral authority. Their political and economic power is all that matters. Freed from accountability to God's laws, our leaders take supreme power for themselves. Through regulations and entitlement programs, they make people dependent on government. Our leaders make laws that violate "the Laws of Nature" and "Nature's God." To them, government is the supreme power in society. To them, government is the only religion that matters. America began with the separation of church and state. A measure of our leader's success is that, today, to many Americans, the state is the church. One cannot find a more clear violation of the First Amendment.
America's Founders made a place for God in government. When we replace career politicians with citizen legislators, we will make that place possible again.
© Curtis Harris
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