Separation Of Church And State
By Sam Weaver (11/12/03)
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
This, of course, is the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution in its entirety. This is where today’s liberals supposedly find their “wall of separation” between church and state; between God and government, if you will. Modern liberals (many very eloquently—even convincingly) will attempt to tell you that America’s Framers wanted to keep religious dogma (i. e., religious principles and beliefs) completely out of the affairs of government. If you believe this, then I urge you to search for as many writings (e. g., The Federalist Papers), speeches (George Washington’s Farewell Address is a good place to start), personal letters (These are extremely difficult to come by. Today’s “history” books and revisionist school texts rarely mention or reference any of these important epistles; yet they are crucial to the understanding of anyone who wants to know what America’s Founders were really thinking!), and even legislation (e. g., the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Article III) of our Founding Fathers as you can.
In all of my diligent searches of the writings of our Founders, I can find only two instances in which the phrase “separation of (or, between) [the] Church and [the] State” is used. The first is from James Madison, the Father of the Constitution. In 1819, Madison wrote:
"It was the Universal opinion of the Century [1600’s] preceding the last [1700’s], that Civil Government could not stand without the prop of a Religious establishment, & that the Christian religion itself, would perish if not supported by a legal provision for its Clergy. The experience of Virginia conspicuously corroborates the disproof of both opinions. The Civil Government...functions with complete success; Whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood, & the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the Church from the State."
Secularists and atheists have used this and other statements by Madison to say that The Father of Our Constitution called for a completely secular government and/or a totally secular (atheistic) society. Look very closely at the above statement. If you can read through the archaic prose of Madison’s time, you will see that it says exactly what I have been trying to say in this series of articles: that liberty rests in the hands of the people (not in the hands of some powerful clergy or dictator); but that liberty can only work when the people are both industrious and moral (i. e., moral, educated and informed)!
The second, and perhaps most famous (infamous) instance in which the phrase “separation between Church and State” can be found, is in a letter from Thomas Jefferson (then president of the United States), written in response to a letter from the Danbury Baptist Association on January 1, 1802. A group of liberty-loving Connecticut Baptists were concerned about religious freedom vis a vis old European standards. President Jefferson’s response contained the following words:
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith and worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people that declared that their Congress should make no laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; thus building a wall of separation between Church & State."
With this statement—coupled at times with Madison’s statement above—modern liberals say, “Aha! SEE, the Founders wanted a wall of separation between church and state! “The Founders,” liberals assert, “wanted both a secular state and a secular society!”
What those same liberals will not tell you, however, is that two days after Thomas Jefferson wrote that letter to the Danbury Baptist Association—before the letter was even delivered—Jefferson attended a Baptist worship service. You may say, “So?! What does that prove?” That worship service was held in the halls of the United States Congress, led by chaplains paid out of the public treasury! You may rest assured that the Danbury Baptists were neither threatened nor dismayed by his attendance. Think about it! Separation of church and state?! Was Jefferson a hypocrite or what?
Exactly what did Thomas Jefferson mean by that phrase? What did America’s Founders mean by the First Amendment clause, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion?”
The answer is really quite simple. Jefferson knew that this “wall of separation” is a one-way street. Government (Congress) must never set (establish) religious dogma to which all people must adhere. Congress must never restrict worship, tax religious institutions, or in any way meddle in the affairs of any church, synagogue, temple or mosque. However, religious (i. e., Judeo-Christian) principles—the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God—were absolutely essential to sound government. In other words, people can be truly free only when they are both responsible and accountable to the rule of Law—not the rule of man!
America’s Founders were very wise men. They were also very aware of the events and the progress of human history. They knew that whenever an institution (i. e., a kingdom or an established religion) had acquired the power to both dictate and enact national dogma or some universal set of doctrines, then one powerful man or one relatively small group of powerful men had inevitably seized the power to interpret the Bible and/or to establish religious dogma and doctrine, basically at his (or their) own whim. Eventually, that one man or group of men always obtained the power to punish, to torture, and even to execute any person who was branded a heretic (i. e., one who would not accept or adhere to the established doctrine of the monarchy or the national church). Remember the Inquisition? Remember King Henry VIII? America’s Founders had liberty in mind! Liberty without law—and without a firm understanding that law is derived from the Creator and the Author of Law—is merely license. License leads always to anarchy. Anarchy leads always to dictatorial rule!
America’s Founders believed in the doctrine of the free will of man. No government had any God-given right to force its will upon its citizens. However, the Founders also realized the supreme importance of Judeo-Christian religion and morality in the stable operation and the prosperity of sound government.
The vast majority of the core group of America’s Founders (primarily, but not exclusively, those who signed the Declaration of Independence and/or attended the Constitutional Convention) expressed several times in their writings, speeches and, especially in their personal correspondences, a fear that future generations of Americans would abandon their faith in God and forget the religious principles upon which America was built. When that happened, they warned, American liberty and American culture would be doomed. Despotism would be the only result. America was to be a nation of free people, but with every freedom comes responsibility. The greatest of these responsibilities is to keep oneself moral, educated and informed. It was ultimately up to individuals and their parents to take this responsibility upon themselves; but churches, schools and the press also had an important role in this responsibility.
It was the charge (purpose) of America’s first schools—even the first public schools—to teach religious and moral principle without regard to the doctrine of any particular denomination or sect of Christianity. [NOTE: Remember from my column “On worldview and culture” (01 OCT 03), that religion is the cornerstone of a nation’s culture (i. e., the most important institution; the institution from which all other worldview or cultural institutions derive).]
If you don’t believe this, then please scan the original charters of America’s first schools, such as Harvard. Delve into their earliest curricula. Read Article III of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Peruse the charters and the constitutions of some of the original thirteen states, or for that matter, many if not most of the later states. If this doesn’t convince you, then take a lesson from Noah Webster—America’s first name in linguistics, the man who gave us the very first American Dictionary of the English Language. Webster’s first dictionary, published in 1828, gives the official definition of education for his day:
"The bringing up, as of a child; instruction; formation of manners. Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable [indispensable means absolutely required]; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties." [Brackets added]
America’s Founders instinctively knew that any education devoid of even one of the four basic cultural institutions (religion, politics, economics and science), but, most important, the institution of religion, was an incomplete and a failed education.
Modern liberals use their contrived and utterly false interpretation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause and their highly opinionated view of “religious tolerance” to keep God and Judeo-Christian religious principle out of America’s public schools. In this way, they are keeping the most fundamental institution of American culture out of your (or your children’s) education, thereby making your (or your children’s) education woefully incomplete.
To the liberal (i. e., the humanist; the relativist), all religions are equal. [NOTE: It’s funny though, isn’t it, how modern liberals fight tooth and nail to keep Christianity out but have no problem whatsoever with inserting paganism and secularism wherever they can get away with it?!] “We must, therefore,” say the relativists, “tolerate and accommodate all religions into American culture.” Well, human beings have free will, and America is based, at least in part, upon that absolute fact. So, fundamentally, what the relativists say in this regard is true. We certainly must tolerate all peoples and welcome all who both truly seek and understand liberty.
However, our Founders (as a whole) believed in the supremacy of Judeo-Christianity as the one and only true religion. Judeo-Christianity is the only “religion” that teaches both the free will of man and the fallen nature of man. Does this make our Founders opinionated? If you are a Christian, it makes them right! If you are logical and rational, then you can see that these uniquely Judeo-Christian ideas form the very meaning of liberty! If, on the other hand you are an atheist, an agnostic or a pagan, then you must admit that this country has been blessed (with liberty, with prosperity, with leadership, with military victory, etc., etc.) as no other nation in all of human history has been blessed. Why is this so? I would argue that it is because we built our house upon Solid Rock (See Matthew 7:24-27). Of course, that would be only my opinion; and, unfortunately, for every one of me there are probably at least two who would want to tear down that house and to rebuild it upon sand.
Any way you look at it—provided you are truly educated and informed—America was founded squarely and firmly upon the principles of Judeo-Christianity. To abandon or to forget these principles would be to abandon American culture. To fail to be moral, educated and informed is the first step toward abandoning American culture and the liberty that is the result of that culture.
We may separate God and His Law from both our government and our culture. But we do so at our own peril! Without God and His Law there is no liberty. Without God and His Law there is no American Culture. Without The Creator, there is no America!
NOTE: This is the seventh in a series of ten essays designed to proffer my peculiar views and insights concerning Western worldviews and culture.
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