Although “separation of church and state” doesn’t appear in the Constitution, to those who desire to strip everything that has to do with religion from our government, I hear you. But you don’t go far enough.
With tongue in cheek, this is what I propose:
• No person who graduated from any of the following colleges or universities should be allowed to serve in a government position, especially the President or a member of Congress, because these schools were established by religious denominations: Harvard, Yale. Vanderbilt, Baylor. Boston University, Fordham, Cornell, Rutgers and others. Some had seminaries and were established to train preachers.
• If a person knows how to read, he shouldn’t be allowed to work for a government agency because religion was the reason people learned to read. Since the Middle Ages, there has been near universal literacy among Jews because men were required to read the Torah by age 13. The Protestant Reformation played a part in the invention of the printing press because everyone wanted access to the scriptures. In America, parents taught their children to read so they could learn the Bible, and the public school system grew out of a nation’s desire that each generation become familiar with scripture.
• No person who works for a tax-supported agency should be treated in a hospital established by a Jewish or Christian denomination.
• No public or government agency or employees should accept charity from a religious organization.
In addition, the person or organization that coined the phrase or used the phrase, “separation of church and state” should be barred from participating in anything that has to do with law because obviously whoever did it has a background in Christianity. Otherwise, the phrase would say, “separation of religion and state.”
Of course, all of the above would be impossible to achieve. Deleting Christianity from our history is just as impossible. You’d need to destroy most of our historical documents, many landmarks, and even the U.S. Supreme Court. After all, “What hath God wrought?” was the first telegraph message sent, and it originated there.
Our nation should use the sense God gave us and look at the wonderful things Christianity brings to us. Take out the church and what will remain in our state? Not much.
The principle of separation of church and state is derived from the Constitution (1) establishing a secular government on the power of the people (not a deity), (2) saying nothing to connect that government to god(s) or religion, (3) saying nothing to give that government power over matters of god(s) or religion, and (4), indeed, saying nothing substantive about god(s) or religion at all except in a provision precluding any religious test for public office and the First Amendment provisions constraining the government from undertaking to establish religion or prohibit individuals from freely exercising their religions.
ReplyDeleteJames Madison, who had a central role in drafting the Constitution and the First Amendment, confirmed that he understood them to “[s]trongly guard[] . . . the separation between Religion and Government.” Madison, Detached Memoranda (~1820). He made plain, too, that they guarded against more than just laws creating state sponsored churches or imposing a state religion. Mindful that even as new principles are proclaimed, old habits die hard and citizens and politicians could tend to entangle government and religion (e.g., “the appointment of chaplains to the two houses of Congress” and “for the army and navy” and “[r]eligious proclamations by the Executive recommending thanksgivings and fasts”), he considered the question whether these actions were “consistent with the Constitution, and with the pure principle of religious freedom” and responded: “In strictness the answer on both points must be in the negative. The Constitution of the United States forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion.”
It is important to distinguish between the "public sphere" and "government" and between "individual" and "government" speech about religion. The principle of separation of church and state does not purge religion from the public sphere--far from it. Indeed, the First Amendment's "free exercise" clause assures that each individual is free to exercise and express his or her religious views--publicly as well as privately. The Amendment constrains only the government not to promote or otherwise take steps toward establishment of religion. As government can only act through the individuals comprising its ranks, when those individuals are performing their official duties, they effectively are the government and thus should conduct themselves in accordance with the First Amendment's constraints on government. When acting in their individual capacities, they are free to exercise their religions as they please.
Separation of church and state does not prevent citizens from making decisions based on principles derived from their religions. Moreover, the religious beliefs of government officials naturally may inform their decisions on policies. The principle, in this context, merely constrains government officials not to make decisions with the predominant purpose or primary effect of advancing religion; in other words, the predominant purpose and primary effect must be nonreligious or secular in nature. A decision coinciding with religious views is not invalid for that reason as long as it has a secular purpose and effect.
The Constitution embodies the simple, just idea that each of us should be free to exercise his or her religious views without expecting that the government will endorse or promote those views and without fearing that the government will endorse or promote the religious views of others. By keeping government and religion separate, the establishment clause serves to protect the freedom of all to exercise their religion. Reasonable people may differ, of course, on how these principles should be applied in particular situations, but the principles are hardly to be doubted.
Wake Forest University recently published a short, objective Q&A primer on the current law of separation of church and state–as applied by the courts rather than as caricatured in the blogosphere. I commend it to you. http://tiny.cc/6nnnx
Thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is that the United States has established SECULARISM as its religion, and it is being forced on every citizen. In my old Enclopedia Americana Secularism was listed along with other religions and included a list of doctrines.
I define religion as anything that takes faith and the fundamentals of secularism take faith--beyond what is required to believe in God.
The tragedy is that secularism offers humanity nothing of hope, setting up the next generation for whatever cult or false religion comes along. All humans have a God-shaped void in them, and they long to fill it. That's why we should share the truths of the gospel. It fills that longing and gives hope for now and eternity.