In discussions with various people, in interviews I've seen, in various bits of political commentary, I have heard murmurings that I've found troubling - and you should, too. Things like:
"We need to get back to being a Christian nation"
"We don't need a separation of church and state"
"It says 'One nation under God' on our money, and if you don't like it, you can get out."
"It's 'one nation under God,' not 'one nation under Allah.'"
I think you get the picture. And if you've thought this through, you're already shocked like I was. If you're on the side that thinks we are a Christian nation, please lend me an objective mind for a few moments.
Is this nation a "Christian nation?"
This nation was founded with the ideal of freedom. And among those many glorious freedoms guaranteed by the constitution is included the freedom of religion. That states that you, like everyone in this country, are free to practice whatever religion or lack thereof that you see fit. It is left up to you, the individual, and is not to be determined by the government, or even the majority.
This was written into the constitution, in the first amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"
Does this sound different from us being a "Christian" nation? Yes. That's because we're not a Christian nation.
But weren't the founding fathers all Christians?
Nope. In fact, I could point out many quotations from founding fathers that have quite scathing reviews of Christianity. For example:
"Lighthouses are more useful than churches" Benjamin Franklin
"This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in
it" John Adams
"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man" Thomas
Jefferson
Do I need to continue? I can.
In fact, Jefferson wrote a book called "The life and moral teachings of Jesus of Nazareth" that removed all the miracles and claims of divinity from the the gospels - things that he saw as unnecessary - and left just the moral teachings.
Clearly, these men were not all Christians. Clearly, by what they included in the constitution, they did not mean this nation to be a "Christian nation," but one where people were free to believe whatever they liked. If you'd like to further debate this, please leave your comment below. In my next posts I will discuss:
2) Why it's good for you that we have the separation of church and state
3) How this knowledge affects how we should treat each other.
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1 comment:
There was an Enlightenment era movement called Deism. It basically said that believing in a creator was logical and didn't need all the miracles and supernatural stuff to support it. God had made the universe and then stood back to watch what happened. Prayer for change in the world was pointless. Some considered Deism empowering, because it implied that if the world was to get better it was our job to do it. Jesus was admired for his teachings and life, but his divinity and miracles were questioned. Jefferson and Franklin both leaned that way, along with some others, but some historians argue the point. The thing is, there was a lot of leeway within Christianity at the time. And there was so much rancor among the fundamentalists of the various churches at the time that giving all of them freedom was the only way to make the new nation work. That's probably still true.
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