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In this 190 page book
the authors recount the reasons and the history for the absence of
god from our constitution. They do this briefly and clearly working
from published sources. Because the material they depend on is
familiar to historians and political scientists, and is available in
any major library, they do not provide detailed footnotes. For
anyone wishing to follow their trail an appendix on sources provides
some guidance.
The authors see a major disagreement or
dispute about the constitution between those who accept the United
States as a secular government and those who insist it is a
Christian nation. The conflict arises from the facts that religion
played a major role in our revolutionary struggle, that throughout
much of the nineteenth century we behaved as if this was a
protestant country, and that religion has given major impulses to
the search for social justice. There thus can be no intention to
marginalize religion or play down its importance in public life. In
fact, the authors devote the last chaper to a consideration of the
proper role of religion in politics. Meanwhile, they contend, the
country was constituted as a secular republic, in which
"religion has the same rights in the public sphere as General
Motors, no more, no less." (p. 15). The problem of course is
that religious Americans see Christian claims as vastly more
important than any other contentions, while non-Christians may tend
to feel these claims as oppressive.
The Constitution explicitly forbids any
religious test for public office, and this is the only place
religion is mentioned in the body of the document. Yet, the voters
will informally insist on a confession of faith. To run as an
unbeliever in practice disqualifies a candidate for most offices in
most places. Every president in the twentieth century has had at
least to mouth Christian platitudes, no matter what the state of his
soul. The founders of the nation learned from long and sometimes
bitter experience, "The state cannot touch a religious practice
without corrupting it." (p. 60) Nor, can the state promote any
religious practice without exciting sectarian dispute. It is worth
remembering that protests against the pledge to the flag, against
prayer in school, and excessive use of Christian music were not
initiated by unbelievers, but by faithful followers of some other
religious persuasion. Rational unbelievers are more likely to mumble
along with the prayers of the fanatical.
The founders of the nation saw themselves
as contending against two distinct forces of tyranny. One was
represented by absolute kings and rulers, the other by priests and
clergy whose oppressive strictures on society and persecution of
dissenters were only gradually being relaxed in eighteenth century
England. The famous words engraved in the Jefferson memorial,
"I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against
every form of tyranny over the mind of man" has its source in a
letter directed against the clergy in Philadelphia, who endeavored
to create a preeminent position for their religious convictions.
There is much to learn from this little
book. The struggle to keep the government secular and impartial will
continue, as long a people fail to understand why it would be
disastrous for the government to follow a sectarian religious path.
And, there is no religious path which is not sectarian, which will
not be opposed by some true believer of another faith.
— Wolf Roder |
