We The (Secular) People
The Constitution is a secular document, writes Susan Jacoby, author of the forthcoming Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, and America is a secular country:
...The notion that elected officials should employ a religious rationale for policy decisions is rooted in the misconception, promulgated by the Christian right, that the American government was founded on divine authority rather than human reason. When I lecture on college campuses, students frequently express surprise at being told that the framers of the Constitution deliberately omitted any mention of God in order to assign supreme governmental power to "We the People."Dismissing this inconvenient fact, some on the religious right have suggested that divine omnipotence was considered a given in the 1780's ó that the framers had no need to acknowledge God in the Constitution because his dominion was as self-evident as the rising and setting of the sun. Yet isn't it absurd to suppose that men as precise in their use of language as Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison would absentmindedly have failed to insert God into the nation's founding document? In fact, they represented a majority of citizens who wished not only to free religion from government interference but government from religious interference.
This deep sentiment was expressed in letters to newspapers during the debate over ratification of the Constitution. One Massachusetts correspondent, signing himself "Elihu," summed up the secular case by praising the authors of the Constitution as men who "come to us in the plain language of common sense, and propose to our understanding a system of government, as the invention of mere human wisdom; no deity comes down to dictate it, nor even a God in a dream to propose any part of it."
The 18th-century public's understanding of the Constitution as a secular document can perhaps best be gauged by the reaction of religious conservatives at the time. For example, the Rev. John M. Mason, a fire-breathing New York City minister, denounced the absence of God in the preamble as "an omission which no pretext whatever can palliate." He warned that "we will have every reason to tremble, lest the governor of the universe, who will not be treated with indignity by a people more than individuals, overturn from its foundations the fabric we have been rearing and crush us to atoms in the wreck." But unlike many conservatives today, Mason acknowledged ó even as he deplored ó the Constitution's uncompromising secularism.
Americans tend to minimize not only the secular convictions of the founders, but also the secularist contribution to later social reform movements. One of the most common misconceptions is that organized religion deserves nearly all of the credit for 19th-century abolitionism and the 20th-century civil rights movement. While religion certainly played a role in both, many people fail to distinguish between personal faith and religious institutions.
Abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison, editor of The Liberator, and the Quaker Lucretia Mott, also a women's rights crusader, denounced the many mainstream Northern religious leaders who, in the 1830's and 40's, refused to condemn slavery.
In return, Garrison and Mott were castigated as infidels and sometimes as atheists ó a common tactic used by those who do not recognize any form of faith but their own. Garrison, strongly influenced by his freethinking predecessor Thomas Paine, observed that one need only be a decent human being ó not a believer in the Bible or any creed ó to discern the evil of slavery.
Here are two mini-reviews of her book from Amazon.com:
ìFreethinkers is not only a good book, it is a necessary one. Ranging from the freethinking Revolution to the pious administration of George W. Bush, this dramatic study offers a welcome reminder that the Founding Fathers were intent on keeping church and state firmly separated. Lively, impassioned, and impartial, Susan Jacobyís argument deserves more than respect; it deserves support.î óPeter Gay, Sterling Professor of History Emeritus, Yale UniversityìThis book is fresh air for those who defend the separation of church and state. Here, clearly written and without apologetics, is the noble record of the struggle to retain Americaís precious freedom of conscience, her pride for two centuries, now under threat from the political Right as never before.î óArthur Miller
Are people in government using religious rhetoric in support of their activities? Naw... If they did they'd be flayed alive. Many people have strong religious feelings, but that's their own business. When it comes time to persuade us on policy matters, government is compelled to sell it in a secular marketplace, and this is how it should be.
Are you trying to chase God out people's hearts?
The death meter in Iraq ran backwards in 2003. Besides the ineluctable pragmatism which propelled our invasion, this blessing was probably nourished by W's Christianity. I'm OK with that.
Crid at January 15, 2004 12:05 PM