Christianity in the Public Square – Part II – The Founders’ Establishment Clause v. the Modern Secularists’ Separation Clause

In Part I we examined statements made in a newspaper article by a Baptist minister and a retired school teacher who support a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) seeking removal of a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments located on the State Capitol grounds. [Hoberock, 9-9-13] In opposition to the monument, the minister and teacher made a series of comments which serve as a basis for examining the larger issue of Christianity in the public square. Part I dealt with the legitimacy or right to express one’s faith in the public square. In Part II we shall move to the larger issue of what the Founders meant by inclusion of the Establishment clause in the First Amendment.

To help us do so, we look to comments by the minister and teacher which express popular but misguided understandings of the Constitution with regard to religion in general and Christianity in particular:

He is trying to express his faith in the public square. He shouldn’t be doing that with monuments trying to make it look like the government is endorsing his particular faith. [Minister referring to the person who paid for the Ten Commandments monument with private funds.]

I am a religious person and to me separation of church and state isn’t the concern about the government trying to control my religion. It is concern about religion trying to control my government. [Teacher]

Again, the validity of these comments must be examined by answering a number of questions.

• Was the Establishment clause meant to protect religion or the government?
• What were the Founders’ attitudes toward Christianity in the public square?
• Is there a difference between our government adhering to biblical principles upon which the nation was founded and the promotion of Christianity or a particular denomination thereof?

To answer the first question, we must examine the meaning of the Establishment clause and the modern misinterpretation of it as a “separation” clause. To impute the First Amendment’s Establishment clause as a separation clause is the typical misreading of the First Amendment in an attempt to drive Christianity from the public square by secular humanists. Specifically, the First Amendment says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or the free exercise thereof…” The phrase “separation of church and state” is not found in the Constitution of the United States.

The Founders were very explicit in their words and deeds in demonstrating that religion was to play an important and central role in the public affairs of the nation. The First Amendment prohibition dealt with the establishment of a preferred religion, a state sponsored religion if you will. It also prohibited the meddling of the federal government in the free exercise thereof.

At the time of the Constitution, although the states encouraged Christianity, no state allowed an exclusive state-sponsored denomination. There was a time when one denomination ruled over and oppressed others. This was fresh in the minds of the people, so much so, that the Danbury Baptist Association wrote to President Jefferson regarding a rumor that a particular denomination would become the official denomination. It was in this context that Jefferson wrote to a gathering of Danbury Baptists at Danbury, Connecticut, on January 1, 1802 to assure them that the rumor had no basis in fact. In an attempt to assuage their fears, he said,

I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise there,” thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. [Barton, p. 41.]

Here we have a politician, visiting his constituents, to assure them that their concerns were baseless, that is, no one Christian denomination would become the official national denomination. That is the context and in no way threatens the Danbury Baptist or other denominations with expulsion from the public square by means of a wall of separation. In effect, Jefferson’s wall was a one-way wall—protecting the church from the government. That is the complete opposite of the meaning as it is used today to drive Christianity out of the public square.

Simply put, government cannot make a law respecting an establishment of religion. In the context of the times and the purpose of his letter to the Danbury Baptists, this meant “preferred religion” and not an absence of religion in government or public life.

This attitude was subsequently demonstrated a few years later by Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story (appointed by James Madison, considered to be the father of the Constitution) who wrote,

…We are not to attribute this prohibition of a national religious establishment to an indifference to religion in general and especially to Christianity which none could hold in more reverence than the framers of the Constitution…an attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation. [Barton, p. 32.]

Contrast Justice Story’s comments to what has occurred in this country beginning with the last half of the 20th century. Voluntary school prayer establishes a national religion, allowing students to pray allowed over their lunches establishes a national religion, displaying the Ten Commandments on public buildings is establishment of a national religion, etc. [Barton, p. 32.]

It is ironic that this belief that any hint of Christianity in the public life of the country becomes the establishment of religion. Effectively, the free exercise of religion (guaranteed in the same sentence) now triggers the prohibited establishment of religion.

In answer to our last question, there is a difference between our government’s adherence to biblical principles upon which the nation was founded and the promotion of Christianity or particular denomination of within Christianity. It is important to understand that the United States is not a nation that attempts to impose Christianity on all of its citizens but rather it is a nation founded upon on Judeo-Christian principles that form the nation’s central cultural vision. The worldview of the Founders dictated the principles or values under which the United States was founded. And with even the most cursory examination of the Founders and the history of the nation, we can unequivocally say we were founded upon Christian principles. And this is the essence of this Christian worldview as it relates to forming a nation: All of society’s laws must be subject to the authority of a higher law. This was the belief of our Founders and this belief is evident in their words and actions.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

Barbara Hoberock, “Minister: Display breaches barrier,” Tulsa World, September 9, 2013, A-9.

David Barton, The Myth of Separation, (Aledo, Texas: Wallbuilder Press, 1878), pp. 32, 41.