In God We Trust?

I wrote this paper for my investigative journalism class at University of Phoenix this past January, 2010. I found it apropos to post this here on Independence Day as the paper discusses whether our country was founded on secular humanism, or as a theocracy. I tried to be objective, presenting both sides so the reader could draw his or her own conclusions or question their existing schema regarding this age-old debate.

In God We Trust?

Aaron A. Klassen

Axia College of University of Phoenix

CMC 250 – Information Sources: Where It’s At

Penny Devito

January 8, 2010

In God We Trust?

Since our countries founding, Americans have been wrestling with the issue of the separation of church and state affairs. Many groups have rallied around different interpretations and understandings of our Constitution, namely, the First Amendment. These ideological platforms have fostered two distinct schools of thought that either America was founded to be a secular nation, or that America was founded on Christian principles and is in essence, a Theocracy—where God is recognized as the supreme civil ruler. Can Americans find common ground in the midst of this dichotomy?

The argument over whether the United States was founded upon Christian principles echoes through the history of this nation. Those in support of this view would go so far as to say that our nation has rejected the Christian values that were allegedly present at our nation’s founding. The question seems to be one of interpreting the intentions of the Founding Fathers—specifically the First Amendment and the religion clause. Let us appeal to the First Amendment as it reads: “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 redress of grievances” (U. S. Constitution). Robert L. Cord, a Political Scientist who speaks on behalf on the Christian position offers his interpretation of this amendment:

[R]egarding religion clause in the First Amendment was intended to accomplish three purposes. First, it was intended to prevent the establishment of a national church or religion, or the giving of any religious sect or denomination a preferred status. Second, it was designed to safeguard the right of freedom of conscience in religious beliefs against invasion solely by the national Government. Third, it was so constructed in order to allow the States, unimpeded, to deal with religious establishments and aid to religious institutions as they saw fit.

(Dudley, 2002, p. 22.).

Cord goes on to say that the founding fathers inclusion of the First Amendment was not to prohibit a Christian influence on State affairs, but rather that there was an unwritten expectation that our nation would embrace Christianity, and that the Republic would exemplify this bias. This bias, however, begs the question of the lack of Christian “language” found within the Constitution and other founding documents. Michael Novak offers an answer: “Perhaps the founders avoided Christian language to avert divisiveness, since different colonies were founded under different Christian inspirations. All found common language in the language of the Jewish Testament” (Novak, 2000, para. 3). Novak goes on to argue that in light of Thomas Jefferson who seemed to embrace a more Deistic ideology that “all the founding fathers—Jefferson included—shared in common a belief that a people cannot maintain liberty without religion” (Novak, 2000, para. 4). The problem with this assertion that liberty and religion are to be muddled together as a common value of all the Founding Fathers is perhaps assuming too much.

The Constitution does not explicitly say that there is to be a separation of the church and state—a point that may be used to argue that this separation was not intended by the writers of our Constitution. In like fashion—that is, on the subject of the absence of a word or phrase in an important document—it is predominantly the Religious Right who are trinitarian theists, yet the word ‘trinity’ is absent from their sacred text, the Bible. So is it a question of semantics and syntax, or is it a question of assumption and principle (Dudley, 2002)?

In similar holy trinity fashion, The Federalist is third in line of the founding-era documents preceded by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself (Meyerson, 2008). The Federalist—essays written in 1787—88 by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay—was a means to persuade the acceptance of the Constitution by the American people. These essays made no religious references or connotations to substantiate the Constitution (Ferguson, 2008). Furthermore, The Federalist has become required reading in schools and colleges as well as for lawyers who present arguments to the Supreme Court. These essays have been cited and referenced to over 300 times—more than half of these citations have been in the past fifty years (Meyerson, 2008). Thomas Jefferson sought to make The Federalist required reading at the University of Virginia and said the essays were, “an authority to which appeal is habitually made by all…as evidence of the general opinion of those who framed, and of those who accepted the Constitution of the United States, on questions as to its genuine meaning” (Meyerson, 2008, p. x). Further, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in 1821 that The Federalist was “a complete commentary on our Constitution, and is appealed to by all parties” (Meyerson, 2008, p. x).

The absence of Christian language from the Constitution was noted by the Reverend Timothy Dwight, the eighth president of Yale University during the War of 1812, who emphatically stated to his students:

The nation has offended Providence [God]. We formed our constitution without any acknowledgement of God; without any recognition or his mercies to us as a people, of his government or even of his existence. The [constitutional] convention by which it was formed, never asked, even once, his direction, or his blessings, upon their labors. Thus we commenced our national existence under the present system without God.

(Kramnick, (1997), p. 105-106).

Another fact to weigh in the balance is an appeal to the meeting of the First congress in regard to the careful wording of the First Amendment which is purposefully not exclusive to one particular religion or denomination—especially that of Christianity, which was considered and rejected (Dudley, 2002). Regardless of the inclusion or exclusion of Christian language in these founding documents—the question remains—what was the condition of the hearts of our Founding Fathers? Where these men practicing Christians as many are led to believe, and that the intentions of their heart were to establish a Christian nation?

The appeal that the founding fathers embraced Christianity finds in its roots beyond this seemingly impervious wall that separates Church and State. It is said that the first act of Congress was to sanction that over 20,000 Bibles be printed for the American Indians (Dudley, 2002). Tim LaHaye, an author and fundamentalist Christian who embraces a literal interpretation of Scripture states that, “[t]his Christian consensus is easily verified by the fact that prior to 1789 (the year that the eleven of the thirteen states ratified the Constitution), many of the states still had constitutional requirements that a man must be a Christian in order to hold public office” (Dudley, 2002, p. 23).

The religious position states that there is a proverbial vacuum at play here in that the absence of Christian values in an ideology creates the vacuum for secular humanism. This argument progresses to say that, “there is no such thing as a value-free society or institution—someone’s values must prevail. Some worldview must ‘fill the vacuum’ left by the eradication of the Christian worldview from public education, social services, courtrooms, etc. By distorting the First Amendment, the United States government has allowed Humanist values to prevail” (Dudley, 2002, p. 23). Christianity is the crux behind the United States being a prosperous nation in the face of Humanism:

The danger of Secular Humanism prevailing in our society is, quite simply, the oldest danger recorded in the Bible: Men setting themselves up as God. The moral framework of our universe guarantees terrible consequences for the country that grants sovereignty to something other than God—because in such circumstances sovereignty ultimately becomes the property of the state” (Dudley, 2002, p.24).

Is this a question of ‘men setting themselves up as God,’ or is it a question of assumption and principle? Thomas Jefferson coined the phrase in light of this argument as there being a ‘wall of separation’ betwixt these two ideologies; however, Jefferson was not a member of the Constitutional Convention. James Madison—a strict practitioner of separation of church and state—was on this Convention, and is considered to have had the most influence in the drafting and adoption of the First Amendment as well as the Bill of Rights. We stand at the crossroads of two distinct ideologies; the tension is thick, and the decision is complicated. Both perspectives have convincing points and counterpoints, and it seems as if we shall continue to wrestle with this issue of separation of church and state as Americans will continue to enroll in either one of these schools of thought—secularism or Theocracy. Is there a common ground, a green-zone, in the midst of this dichotomy? Live the questions.

References

Dudley, W. (eds.). (2002). Religion in America: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven Press.

Ferguson, R. (2006). The Federalist. New York: Barnes & Noble Books.

Kramnick, I. (1997). The Godless Constitution: the Case Against Religious Correctness. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

Meyerson, M. (2008). Liberty’s Blueprint: How Madison and Hamilton Wrote the Federalist Papers, Defined the Constitution, and Made Democracy Safe for the World. New York: Basic Books.

Novak, M. (2000). History and Culture: In God We Trust. Hoover Digest. http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/4637871.html

U.S. Constitution. http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html