SEPARATION OF CHURCH & STATE IS WHY AMERICA BECAME GREAT

….Our US Constitution

 

America’s founders knew that a nation being founded on a single religion would doom a fledging nation.

It seems that in every new generation since this great country was formed, there is always a new group of religious conservatives that claim that the forming of this country was based on the Christian faith.  Today, in our Congress, we still have those that were elected from bright-Red districts, mainly in the south and the mid-west, by large numbers of right wing evangelists.  These conservative politicians know that if they don’t support the concept that this nation was and is, founded on Christianity, they know they won’t be able to hold on to their seats in either the House or the Senate.

Therefore, even though the US Constitution was written over 200 years ago.  In the very first amendment of that great document, it is very clear that everyone in the nation has both freedom of speech and freedom of religion.  But today, we still have a group of those right-wing religious warriors out there claiming that we are a “Christian nation”.

Now, nobody can deny the fact that Christianity has played a huge role in our US history. But the reality is that our wise founders, though most of them did come from Christian families, they were adamant that this nation was not to be founded on religion, and especially a single religion.  What this nation was built on was not Christianity, but it was based on the secular teachings of Jesus Christ as well as similar beliefs of other religions, and many of these were common beliefs.

The attributes that our founders considered were those such as, that of being charitable to others, respecting your neighbor, treating strangers with kindness, these are the qualities that the founders took, and they can be attributed to many religions.  The fact that most of the founders may actually have been Christians, was not as important as knowing that what most people wanted was the common need to be treated fairly, and to be left to worship as they desired.  The key was that whatever religion any citizen chose, it must not hamper their neighbor’s religious choices or their way of life.

One of our founders, James Madison, made it very clear how he felt in a 1774 letter when he wrote, “Christian establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption.”

But here we are today, as the former, ½ Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, continues to give here ranting speeches around the country referring to her America as a “Christian Nation”.  The super conservative Heritage Foundation’s, Mark David Hall, PhD, has a long essay where he argues that the answer to America’s founding as a Christian nation is both; “Of course not!” and “Absolutely!”  He agrees that both of these answers distort the founders’ views, but after reading Dr. Hall’s essay, you get the feeling that apparently the Heritage Foundation feels that the correct answer is “no, of course not!”, but deep down, America basically has a Christian foundation.

My personal opinion is that whatever our founders meant when they put together our founding documents, who would be better than to go to than them, and to see what they wrote around the time that the US Constitution was written.

After reading what our founders provided, not just in our Constitution, but also in their other speeches and letters, that is where it becomes obvious that they were adamant that the nation was based on the charitable aspects of many religions. But they were very clear that all Americans should have the right to practice their religion of choice.

 

…The US Capitol Building

Here is a selection of statements from seven of the nation’s founders and Constitution contributors that demonstrates their thinking at the time:

“If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.”

- George Washington, letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia (1789)

“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.”

- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr (1787)

"In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced.”

- Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists (1771)

“Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law. Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its original benignity.”

- Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man (1791)

“Congress has no power to make any religious establishments.”

- Roger Sherman, Congress (1789)

"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."

- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac (1758)

 "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people build a wall of separation between Church & State."

- Thomas Jefferson, letter to the Danbury Baptists (1802)

"To argue with a man who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead."

- Thomas Paine, The American Crisis No. V (1776)

“Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry.”

- Thomas Jefferson, A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom (1779)

"Christian establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption, all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects."

- James Madison, letter to William Bradford, Jr. (1774)

"There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness."

- George Washington, address to Congress (1790)

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."

- James Madison, General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia (1785)

No, we are not a nation based on Christianity.

Copyright G.Ater  2015