Church and State

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A little primary source documentation for you Tea Party afflicted out there:

First Amendment, US Constitution

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.

Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Danbury Baptists

To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.

Gentlemen

The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, 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 & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.

Th Jefferson
Jan. 1. 1802.

Treaty of Tripoli, Nov. 4, 1796

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

-Chris

Related Articles

• ‘A Wall Of Eternal Separation’ (talkingpointsmemo.com)
• Lecturer explains: Church-state separation equals bigotry (secularnewsdaily.com)
• “Next Time Your Liberal Friends Talk About the Separation of Church and State, Ask Them Why They’re Nazis” (volokh.com)

NOT A Christian Nation

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It keeps coming back from the dead, this idea that America was founded as a Christian nation.

All you have to do is ignore much of the Constitution, the back and forth in the Federalist Papers and the context of religious intolerance that made many of the founders flee Europe.

James Rudin, a rabbi writing for the Religious News Service, outlines the history of this country and why it is certainly NOT a Christian nation in his article (posted on the Huffington Post last week).

“The Myth of a Christian Nation”

Rudin also notes a little mentioned event in the early history of the nation that may have been the tipping point for how religion would be handled in the Constitution.

In 1785 Virginia, governor Patrick Henry proposed a tax on residents to pay for churches.

A variety of public figures, including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison allied to defeat the measure with the introduction and passage the next year of Jefferson’s Statute of Religious Freedom.

The statute reads in part:

” No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever … nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”

Interestingly, Jefferson later penned these words in a much-talked about, but apparently seldom read document:

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.

-Chris