History 101 for Christian nationalists: Founders wanted religion kept out of government
For those of you who consider yourself Constitutionalists, your Christian nationalist view is just plain wrong.
The Gainesville Sun
History 101 for Christian nationalists: Founders wanted religion kept out of government
Kenneth D. Wald
Tue, October 18, 2022 at 5:06 AM
The media has alerted us to surging public support among Republicans for declaring the United States a Christian nation.
In a national survey by a respected polling institute, that sentiment was endorsed by roughly three-fifths of all Republicans and almost 80% of Republicans who identify themselves as Evangelicals or born-again Christians. Some prominent Republicans have gone further by insisting that separation of religion and state is a myth.
The advocates of Christian nationalism might be chastened if they learned about an instructive exchange between George Washington and the Presbyterian ministers of New Hampshire and Massachusetts just six months after the president had taken the oath of office in 1789.
In an otherwise effusive letter praising Washington, the ministers complained about a crucial omission from the U.S. Constitution. They wanted language recognizing the United States as a Christian nation. As they told the president, “we should not have been alone in rejoicing to have seen some Explicit acknowledgement of the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent” in the Constitution.
Although President Washington praised the ministers for their devotion to spreading the Gospel, he instructed them gently that this was not the task of the government. It would be best if responsibility for moral uplift was assigned “to the guidance of the ministers of the gospel.” The government should be left out of it.
In fact, Washington he insisted, “... the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.” This perspective, not hostility nor indifference to religion, accounted for “the absence of any regulation respecting religion” in the Constitution.
As Washington saw it, religious institutions were part of civil society and did not possess political authority under the Constitution. He had endorsed this principle five years earlier when he opposed a Virginia bill authorizing public funds to pay for Protestant teachers of religion.
Washington’s explanation did not end other attempts to characterize the United States as a Christian nation. Just 40 years later, Congress was besieged with petitions to end the t***sport and delivery of the mail on Sundays, the Christian sabbath. The response of the House Committee on Post Offices was provided by Richard Johnson of Kentucky, a former vice president who later held a U.S. Senate seat.
The committee had searched the Constitution in vain for any indication that Congress could stop the Postal Service from doing its job for explicitly religious reasons. The very idea was repugnant to constitutional values.
Johnson argued that members of Congress are supposed to represent their constituents but they are chosen “to represent their political, and not their religious views.” The Constitution, he reminded his colleagues, “regards the conscience of the Jew as sacred as that of the Christian.” Hence, Congress has no authority to violate the conscience of any citizen by declaring one day of the week more holy than another.
These examples, which could be multiplied, show that the founders of the Republic, including George Washington, James Madison and other signers of the Constitution, insisted that the United States had no official religious identity. Even if a majority of the population were Christian, that conferred no governmental authority upon them.
This principle was intended as much to protect religion from the state as the state from religion. When religion exercises the power of government, an 1839 report on the mails declared, “Christianity degenerates into an instrument of oppression and loses all its beauty and moral excellence.” By contrast, religion flourishes most fully “unaided by the secular arm” of the state.
It is not clear what would be accomplished by declaring Christianity as the religion of the United States apart from conferring second-class citizenship on people who were not Christians. Given the diversity of political views among Christians, it would be extremely challenging even to identify what government policies or regulations would represent that religious tradition.
Christian nationalists, who often describe themselves as constitutional conservatives, might want to conserve the Founders’ approach to religion rather than trying to undermine it.
Kenneth D. Wald is distinguished professor emeritus of political science at the University of Florida and the author of “Religion and Politics in the United States,” forthcoming in its ninth edition.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Kenneth D. Wald: Founding Fathers differed from Christian nationalists
336Robin wrote:
For those of you who consider yourself Constitutionalists, your Christian nationalist view is just plain wrong.
The Gainesville Sun
History 101 for Christian nationalists: Founders wanted religion kept out of government
Kenneth D. Wald
Tue, October 18, 2022 at 5:06 AM
The media has alerted us to surging public support among Republicans for declaring the United States a Christian nation.
In a national survey by a respected polling institute, that sentiment was endorsed by roughly three-fifths of all Republicans and almost 80% of Republicans who identify themselves as Evangelicals or born-again Christians. Some prominent Republicans have gone further by insisting that separation of religion and state is a myth.
The advocates of Christian nationalism might be chastened if they learned about an instructive exchange between George Washington and the Presbyterian ministers of New Hampshire and Massachusetts just six months after the president had taken the oath of office in 1789.
In an otherwise effusive letter praising Washington, the ministers complained about a crucial omission from the U.S. Constitution. They wanted language recognizing the United States as a Christian nation. As they told the president, “we should not have been alone in rejoicing to have seen some Explicit acknowledgement of the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent” in the Constitution.
Although President Washington praised the ministers for their devotion to spreading the Gospel, he instructed them gently that this was not the task of the government. It would be best if responsibility for moral uplift was assigned “to the guidance of the ministers of the gospel.” The government should be left out of it.
In fact, Washington he insisted, “... the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.” This perspective, not hostility nor indifference to religion, accounted for “the absence of any regulation respecting religion” in the Constitution.
As Washington saw it, religious institutions were part of civil society and did not possess political authority under the Constitution. He had endorsed this principle five years earlier when he opposed a Virginia bill authorizing public funds to pay for Protestant teachers of religion.
Washington’s explanation did not end other attempts to characterize the United States as a Christian nation. Just 40 years later, Congress was besieged with petitions to end the t***sport and delivery of the mail on Sundays, the Christian sabbath. The response of the House Committee on Post Offices was provided by Richard Johnson of Kentucky, a former vice president who later held a U.S. Senate seat.
The committee had searched the Constitution in vain for any indication that Congress could stop the Postal Service from doing its job for explicitly religious reasons. The very idea was repugnant to constitutional values.
Johnson argued that members of Congress are supposed to represent their constituents but they are chosen “to represent their political, and not their religious views.” The Constitution, he reminded his colleagues, “regards the conscience of the Jew as sacred as that of the Christian.” Hence, Congress has no authority to violate the conscience of any citizen by declaring one day of the week more holy than another.
These examples, which could be multiplied, show that the founders of the Republic, including George Washington, James Madison and other signers of the Constitution, insisted that the United States had no official religious identity. Even if a majority of the population were Christian, that conferred no governmental authority upon them.
This principle was intended as much to protect religion from the state as the state from religion. When religion exercises the power of government, an 1839 report on the mails declared, “Christianity degenerates into an instrument of oppression and loses all its beauty and moral excellence.” By contrast, religion flourishes most fully “unaided by the secular arm” of the state.
It is not clear what would be accomplished by declaring Christianity as the religion of the United States apart from conferring second-class citizenship on people who were not Christians. Given the diversity of political views among Christians, it would be extremely challenging even to identify what government policies or regulations would represent that religious tradition.
Christian nationalists, who often describe themselves as constitutional conservatives, might want to conserve the Founders’ approach to religion rather than trying to undermine it.
Kenneth D. Wald is distinguished professor emeritus of political science at the University of Florida and the author of “Religion and Politics in the United States,” forthcoming in its ninth edition.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Kenneth D. Wald: Founding Fathers differed from Christian nationalists
For those of you who consider yourself Constitutio... (
show quote)
You delude only yourself, our Founding Fathers wanted government kept out of Religion. A very different thing!
336Robin wrote:
For those of you who consider yourself Constitutionalists, your Christian nationalist view is just plain wrong.
The Gainesville Sun
History 101 for Christian nationalists: Founders wanted religion kept out of government
Kenneth D. Wald
Tue, October 18, 2022 at 5:06 AM
The media has alerted us to surging public support among Republicans for declaring the United States a Christian nation.
In a national survey by a respected polling institute, that sentiment was endorsed by roughly three-fifths of all Republicans and almost 80% of Republicans who identify themselves as Evangelicals or born-again Christians. Some prominent Republicans have gone further by insisting that separation of religion and state is a myth.
The advocates of Christian nationalism might be chastened if they learned about an instructive exchange between George Washington and the Presbyterian ministers of New Hampshire and Massachusetts just six months after the president had taken the oath of office in 1789.
In an otherwise effusive letter praising Washington, the ministers complained about a crucial omission from the U.S. Constitution. They wanted language recognizing the United States as a Christian nation. As they told the president, “we should not have been alone in rejoicing to have seen some Explicit acknowledgement of the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent” in the Constitution.
Although President Washington praised the ministers for their devotion to spreading the Gospel, he instructed them gently that this was not the task of the government. It would be best if responsibility for moral uplift was assigned “to the guidance of the ministers of the gospel.” The government should be left out of it.
In fact, Washington he insisted, “... the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.” This perspective, not hostility nor indifference to religion, accounted for “the absence of any regulation respecting religion” in the Constitution.
As Washington saw it, religious institutions were part of civil society and did not possess political authority under the Constitution. He had endorsed this principle five years earlier when he opposed a Virginia bill authorizing public funds to pay for Protestant teachers of religion.
Washington’s explanation did not end other attempts to characterize the United States as a Christian nation. Just 40 years later, Congress was besieged with petitions to end the t***sport and delivery of the mail on Sundays, the Christian sabbath. The response of the House Committee on Post Offices was provided by Richard Johnson of Kentucky, a former vice president who later held a U.S. Senate seat.
The committee had searched the Constitution in vain for any indication that Congress could stop the Postal Service from doing its job for explicitly religious reasons. The very idea was repugnant to constitutional values.
Johnson argued that members of Congress are supposed to represent their constituents but they are chosen “to represent their political, and not their religious views.” The Constitution, he reminded his colleagues, “regards the conscience of the Jew as sacred as that of the Christian.” Hence, Congress has no authority to violate the conscience of any citizen by declaring one day of the week more holy than another.
These examples, which could be multiplied, show that the founders of the Republic, including George Washington, James Madison and other signers of the Constitution, insisted that the United States had no official religious identity. Even if a majority of the population were Christian, that conferred no governmental authority upon them.
This principle was intended as much to protect religion from the state as the state from religion. When religion exercises the power of government, an 1839 report on the mails declared, “Christianity degenerates into an instrument of oppression and loses all its beauty and moral excellence.” By contrast, religion flourishes most fully “unaided by the secular arm” of the state.
It is not clear what would be accomplished by declaring Christianity as the religion of the United States apart from conferring second-class citizenship on people who were not Christians. Given the diversity of political views among Christians, it would be extremely challenging even to identify what government policies or regulations would represent that religious tradition.
Christian nationalists, who often describe themselves as constitutional conservatives, might want to conserve the Founders’ approach to religion rather than trying to undermine it.
Kenneth D. Wald is distinguished professor emeritus of political science at the University of Florida and the author of “Religion and Politics in the United States,” forthcoming in its ninth edition.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Kenneth D. Wald: Founding Fathers differed from Christian nationalists
For those of you who consider yourself Constitutio... (
show quote)
Just a few quick questions. Why were Christian church services attended by members of Congress and Presidents held in the Capitol building in the early days? Why did the first Congress appropriate money to purchase Bibles? Why id the first text books feature Bible stories to teach children to read? Why were Chaplains chosen for the House and Senate? Why was the first Speaker of the House a pastor? I could provide a long list of quotes to support how the founders felt about the place of God in government, but you would just try to spin it all away because t***h is an enemy of yours.
Liberty Tree wrote:
Just a few quick questions. Why were Christian church services attended by members of Congress and Presidents held in the Capitol building in the early days? Why did the first Congress appropriate money to purchase Bibles? Why id the first text books feature Bible stories to teach children to read? Why were Chaplains chosen for the House and Senate? Why was the first Speaker of the House a pastor? I could provide a long list of quotes to support how the founders felt about the place of God in government, but you would just try to spin it all away because t***h is an enemy of yours.
Just a few quick questions. Why were Christian chu... (
show quote)
You’ll hear NOTHING from them. The book “ Original Intent” by Barton is superb but libs will not read it.
Forkbassman wrote:
You’ll hear NOTHING from them. The book “ Original Intent” by Barton is superb but libs will not read it.
Nothing is going to stop progress. You can try to force your version on people who are here to be free and it might work for a little while, but when the true intent of this Christian nationalism and predatory capitalism shows itself, its going be hard to keep selling it.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a Democratic landslide this e******n.
336Robin wrote:
Nothing is going to stop progress. You can try to force your version on people who are here to be free and it might work for a little while, but when the true intent of this Christian nationalism and predatory capitalism shows itself, its going be hard to keep selling it.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a Democratic landslide this e******n.
Exactly how is anyone being "forced"?
336Robin wrote:
For those of you who consider yourself Constitutionalists, your Christian nationalist view is just plain wrong.
The Gainesville Sun
History 101 for Christian nationalists: Founders wanted religion kept out of government
Kenneth D. Wald
Tue, October 18, 2022 at 5:06 AM
The media has alerted us to surging public support among Republicans for declaring the United States a Christian nation.
In a national survey by a respected polling institute, that sentiment was endorsed by roughly three-fifths of all Republicans and almost 80% of Republicans who identify themselves as Evangelicals or born-again Christians. Some prominent Republicans have gone further by insisting that separation of religion and state is a myth.
The advocates of Christian nationalism might be chastened if they learned about an instructive exchange between George Washington and the Presbyterian ministers of New Hampshire and Massachusetts just six months after the president had taken the oath of office in 1789.
In an otherwise effusive letter praising Washington, the ministers complained about a crucial omission from the U.S. Constitution. They wanted language recognizing the United States as a Christian nation. As they told the president, “we should not have been alone in rejoicing to have seen some Explicit acknowledgement of the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent” in the Constitution.
Although President Washington praised the ministers for their devotion to spreading the Gospel, he instructed them gently that this was not the task of the government. It would be best if responsibility for moral uplift was assigned “to the guidance of the ministers of the gospel.” The government should be left out of it.
In fact, Washington he insisted, “... the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.” This perspective, not hostility nor indifference to religion, accounted for “the absence of any regulation respecting religion” in the Constitution.
As Washington saw it, religious institutions were part of civil society and did not possess political authority under the Constitution. He had endorsed this principle five years earlier when he opposed a Virginia bill authorizing public funds to pay for Protestant teachers of religion.
Washington’s explanation did not end other attempts to characterize the United States as a Christian nation. Just 40 years later, Congress was besieged with petitions to end the t***sport and delivery of the mail on Sundays, the Christian sabbath. The response of the House Committee on Post Offices was provided by Richard Johnson of Kentucky, a former vice president who later held a U.S. Senate seat.
The committee had searched the Constitution in vain for any indication that Congress could stop the Postal Service from doing its job for explicitly religious reasons. The very idea was repugnant to constitutional values.
Johnson argued that members of Congress are supposed to represent their constituents but they are chosen “to represent their political, and not their religious views.” The Constitution, he reminded his colleagues, “regards the conscience of the Jew as sacred as that of the Christian.” Hence, Congress has no authority to violate the conscience of any citizen by declaring one day of the week more holy than another.
These examples, which could be multiplied, show that the founders of the Republic, including George Washington, James Madison and other signers of the Constitution, insisted that the United States had no official religious identity. Even if a majority of the population were Christian, that conferred no governmental authority upon them.
This principle was intended as much to protect religion from the state as the state from religion. When religion exercises the power of government, an 1839 report on the mails declared, “Christianity degenerates into an instrument of oppression and loses all its beauty and moral excellence.” By contrast, religion flourishes most fully “unaided by the secular arm” of the state.
It is not clear what would be accomplished by declaring Christianity as the religion of the United States apart from conferring second-class citizenship on people who were not Christians. Given the diversity of political views among Christians, it would be extremely challenging even to identify what government policies or regulations would represent that religious tradition.
Christian nationalists, who often describe themselves as constitutional conservatives, might want to conserve the Founders’ approach to religion rather than trying to undermine it.
Kenneth D. Wald is distinguished professor emeritus of political science at the University of Florida and the author of “Religion and Politics in the United States,” forthcoming in its ninth edition.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Kenneth D. Wald: Founding Fathers differed from Christian nationalists
For those of you who consider yourself Constitutio... (
show quote)
Where did the Founding Fathers get the principles found in the Constitution of the United States? The Constitution lists the basic human rights that every American is entitled to. Where did these ideas come from?
https://libertyjusticehq.com/biblical-principles-in-the-constitution/
Gatsby wrote:
You delude only yourself, our Founding Fathers wanted government kept out of Religion. A very different thing!
It's pretty simple - one has to wonder why the leftoids don't get it.....
You apparently don't think anything changes since the founding fathers when time is known to move on and peoples expectation of fair government changes with it.
I would bet everything I own that in 50 years there will be many changes and this Christian Nationalist movement will be a thing of the past.
336Robin wrote:
Nothing is going to stop progress. You can try to force your version on people who are here to be free and it might work for a little while, but when the true intent of this Christian nationalism and predatory capitalism shows itself, its going be hard to keep selling it.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a Democratic landslide this e******n.
Who's doing the 'forcing'???
Christians don't have parades where they prance around in clown clothes grabbing each other in private places. (I saw a parade once where one of the floats was a giant bed, and gay people were having a mock gay orgy on it.)
Christians don't demand that their views are accepted by suing people for not baking them a cake. Christians do not live with and have sex with someone who is the same g****r as themselves......and they have only two of those g****rs.
If anyone is being forced to accept things they don't believe in, it's Christians!!
Christians have been persecuted for centuries.
EmilyD wrote:
Who's doing the 'forcing'???
Christians don't have parades where they prance around in clown clothes grabbing each other in private places. (I saw a parade once where one of the floats was a giant bed, and gay people were having a mock gay orgy on it.)
Christians don't demand that their views are accepted by suing people for not baking them a cake. Christians do not live with and have sex with someone who is the same g****r as themselves......and they have only two of those g****rs.
If anyone is being forced to accept things they don't believe in, it's Christians!!
Christians have been persecuted for centuries.
Who's doing the 'forcing'??? br br Christians don... (
show quote)
I guess you forget the crusades and also that evangelicals are behind the recent changes involving roe vs. wade.
You have a selective memory, poor pitiful f*****ts. No one likes you.
336Robin wrote:
I guess you forget the crusades and also that evangelicals are behind the recent changes involving roe vs. wade.
You have a selective memory, poor pitiful f*****ts. No one likes you.
Just like you to change the subject and then try to insult me without any substance. Your response has nothing to do with my post. My point is that gays and t***s men and women are trying mightily to force their lifestyle and THEIR beliefs on Christians....not the other way around. The collision between L**T concerns and concerns of religious freedom, as shown in the case of the Colorado baker who refused, on grounds of his conscience, to supply a wedding cake carrying a message endorsing same sex marriage, along with the U.S. Supreme Court’s re-definition of "marriage" to include same sex unions, have moved this question to the front and center of American culture.
Christians who deny the legitimacy of a homosexual lifestyle are routinely denounced as h********c, intolerant, and h**eful. There is tremendous intimidation of Christians by the L**T community. Today's statistics show that 96.6% of adults identify as straight and 1.6% identify as gay or lesbian. And look at the power that small, but very loud and very demanding voice has!
You said:
"You can try to force your version on people who are here to be free and it might work for a little while, but when the true intent of this Christian nationalism and predatory capitalism shows itself, its going be hard to keep selling it." So my question is: Who is doing the forcing?? (Hint: It's not Christians.)
336Robin wrote:
For those of you who consider yourself Constitutionalists, your Christian nationalist view is just plain wrong.
The Gainesville Sun
History 101 for Christian nationalists: Founders wanted religion kept out of government
Kenneth D. Wald
Tue, October 18, 2022 at 5:06 AM
The media has alerted us to surging public support among Republicans for declaring the United States a Christian nation.
In a national survey by a respected polling institute, that sentiment was endorsed by roughly three-fifths of all Republicans and almost 80% of Republicans who identify themselves as Evangelicals or born-again Christians. Some prominent Republicans have gone further by insisting that separation of religion and state is a myth.
The advocates of Christian nationalism might be chastened if they learned about an instructive exchange between George Washington and the Presbyterian ministers of New Hampshire and Massachusetts just six months after the president had taken the oath of office in 1789.
In an otherwise effusive letter praising Washington, the ministers complained about a crucial omission from the U.S. Constitution. They wanted language recognizing the United States as a Christian nation. As they told the president, “we should not have been alone in rejoicing to have seen some Explicit acknowledgement of the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent” in the Constitution.
Although President Washington praised the ministers for their devotion to spreading the Gospel, he instructed them gently that this was not the task of the government. It would be best if responsibility for moral uplift was assigned “to the guidance of the ministers of the gospel.” The government should be left out of it.
In fact, Washington he insisted, “... the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.” This perspective, not hostility nor indifference to religion, accounted for “the absence of any regulation respecting religion” in the Constitution.
As Washington saw it, religious institutions were part of civil society and did not possess political authority under the Constitution. He had endorsed this principle five years earlier when he opposed a Virginia bill authorizing public funds to pay for Protestant teachers of religion.
Washington’s explanation did not end other attempts to characterize the United States as a Christian nation. Just 40 years later, Congress was besieged with petitions to end the t***sport and delivery of the mail on Sundays, the Christian sabbath. The response of the House Committee on Post Offices was provided by Richard Johnson of Kentucky, a former vice president who later held a U.S. Senate seat.
The committee had searched the Constitution in vain for any indication that Congress could stop the Postal Service from doing its job for explicitly religious reasons. The very idea was repugnant to constitutional values.
Johnson argued that members of Congress are supposed to represent their constituents but they are chosen “to represent their political, and not their religious views.” The Constitution, he reminded his colleagues, “regards the conscience of the Jew as sacred as that of the Christian.” Hence, Congress has no authority to violate the conscience of any citizen by declaring one day of the week more holy than another.
These examples, which could be multiplied, show that the founders of the Republic, including George Washington, James Madison and other signers of the Constitution, insisted that the United States had no official religious identity. Even if a majority of the population were Christian, that conferred no governmental authority upon them.
This principle was intended as much to protect religion from the state as the state from religion. When religion exercises the power of government, an 1839 report on the mails declared, “Christianity degenerates into an instrument of oppression and loses all its beauty and moral excellence.” By contrast, religion flourishes most fully “unaided by the secular arm” of the state.
It is not clear what would be accomplished by declaring Christianity as the religion of the United States apart from conferring second-class citizenship on people who were not Christians. Given the diversity of political views among Christians, it would be extremely challenging even to identify what government policies or regulations would represent that religious tradition.
Christian nationalists, who often describe themselves as constitutional conservatives, might want to conserve the Founders’ approach to religion rather than trying to undermine it.
Kenneth D. Wald is distinguished professor emeritus of political science at the University of Florida and the author of “Religion and Politics in the United States,” forthcoming in its ninth edition.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Kenneth D. Wald: Founding Fathers differed from Christian nationalists
For those of you who consider yourself Constitutio... (
show quote)
We have to or need to live by what the constitution actually says about government and religion. There is not separation of church and state. The constitution only limits what the government can do regarding religion. That is that the government can not declare a national religion that everyone must follow. Like they had in England. Our founding fathers wanted people to be able to practice what ever religion they wanted to. But no where in the constitution, to my knowledge, prohibits religion from being present in our government. It simply says that the government can not form a national religion forced upon the peoplento follow.
336Robin wrote:
I guess you forget the crusades and also that evangelicals are behind the recent changes involving roe vs. wade.
You have a selective memory, poor pitiful f*****ts. No one likes you.
LOL The Crusades were a thousand years ago.......
Roe v Wade was a bad ruling (ask RGB about that). It is back where it belongs, in the purview of the states.
336Robin wrote:
For those of you who consider yourself Constitutionalists, your Christian nationalist view is just plain wrong.
The Gainesville Sun
History 101 for Christian nationalists: Founders wanted religion kept out of government
Kenneth D. Wald
Tue, October 18, 2022 at 5:06 AM
The media has alerted us to surging public support among Republicans for declaring the United States a Christian nation.
In a national survey by a respected polling institute, that sentiment was endorsed by roughly three-fifths of all Republicans and almost 80% of Republicans who identify themselves as Evangelicals or born-again Christians. Some prominent Republicans have gone further by insisting that separation of religion and state is a myth.
The advocates of Christian nationalism might be chastened if they learned about an instructive exchange between George Washington and the Presbyterian ministers of New Hampshire and Massachusetts just six months after the president had taken the oath of office in 1789.
In an otherwise effusive letter praising Washington, the ministers complained about a crucial omission from the U.S. Constitution. They wanted language recognizing the United States as a Christian nation. As they told the president, “we should not have been alone in rejoicing to have seen some Explicit acknowledgement of the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent” in the Constitution.
Although President Washington praised the ministers for their devotion to spreading the Gospel, he instructed them gently that this was not the task of the government. It would be best if responsibility for moral uplift was assigned “to the guidance of the ministers of the gospel.” The government should be left out of it.
In fact, Washington he insisted, “... the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.” This perspective, not hostility nor indifference to religion, accounted for “the absence of any regulation respecting religion” in the Constitution.
As Washington saw it, religious institutions were part of civil society and did not possess political authority under the Constitution. He had endorsed this principle five years earlier when he opposed a Virginia bill authorizing public funds to pay for Protestant teachers of religion.
Washington’s explanation did not end other attempts to characterize the United States as a Christian nation. Just 40 years later, Congress was besieged with petitions to end the t***sport and delivery of the mail on Sundays, the Christian sabbath. The response of the House Committee on Post Offices was provided by Richard Johnson of Kentucky, a former vice president who later held a U.S. Senate seat.
The committee had searched the Constitution in vain for any indication that Congress could stop the Postal Service from doing its job for explicitly religious reasons. The very idea was repugnant to constitutional values.
Johnson argued that members of Congress are supposed to represent their constituents but they are chosen “to represent their political, and not their religious views.” The Constitution, he reminded his colleagues, “regards the conscience of the Jew as sacred as that of the Christian.” Hence, Congress has no authority to violate the conscience of any citizen by declaring one day of the week more holy than another.
These examples, which could be multiplied, show that the founders of the Republic, including George Washington, James Madison and other signers of the Constitution, insisted that the United States had no official religious identity. Even if a majority of the population were Christian, that conferred no governmental authority upon them.
This principle was intended as much to protect religion from the state as the state from religion. When religion exercises the power of government, an 1839 report on the mails declared, “Christianity degenerates into an instrument of oppression and loses all its beauty and moral excellence.” By contrast, religion flourishes most fully “unaided by the secular arm” of the state.
It is not clear what would be accomplished by declaring Christianity as the religion of the United States apart from conferring second-class citizenship on people who were not Christians. Given the diversity of political views among Christians, it would be extremely challenging even to identify what government policies or regulations would represent that religious tradition.
Christian nationalists, who often describe themselves as constitutional conservatives, might want to conserve the Founders’ approach to religion rather than trying to undermine it.
Kenneth D. Wald is distinguished professor emeritus of political science at the University of Florida and the author of “Religion and Politics in the United States,” forthcoming in its ninth edition.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Kenneth D. Wald: Founding Fathers differed from Christian nationalists
For those of you who consider yourself Constitutio... (
show quote)
Again you miss the point! They didn’t want government in their religion!!!
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