The Great Debate of Our Season
“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.”
Those words, penned in article 11 of the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, are as succinct a statement as we have from the Founding Fathers on the role of religion in our government. Their authorship is ascribed variously to George Washington, under whom the treaty was negotiated, or to John Adams, under whom it took effect, or sometimes to Joel Barlow, U.S. consul to Algiers, friend of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, and himself no stranger to the religious ferment of the era, having served as a chaplain in the Revolutionary Army. But the validity of the document transcends its authorship for a simple reason: it was ratified. It was debated in the U.S. Senate and signed into law by President Adams without a breath of controversy or complaint concerning its secular language, and so stands today as an official description of the founders’ intent.
And it wouldn’t stand a chance in the government of the country we’ve become.
The idea of America was always informed by the ideals of its religious citizens, expressed, often, in religious terms. But the genius of America was the establishment, by those same individuals, of the world’s first secular government. That government wasn’t at odds with religion—even the separation of church and state might be construed as a policy extension of Jesus’ admonition not to pray as the hypocrites do, in public. And many religious factions (among them the 19th-century evangelicals) lobbied for secular governance, to protect themselves from the tyranny of mainstream denominations. Yet some among the faithful, uncomfortable with America from the start, saw secularism as the nation’s fatal flaw, instead of its core strength, and have fought to transform the United States into an expressly Judeo-Christian nation.
Recently, the inheritors of this viewpoint are prevailing. The measure of religion’s intrusion into our government and politics can be found whenever the White House markets a Supreme Court candidate by flaunting her religious convictions and church affiliation, whenever liberal Democrat politicians ostentatiously genuflect to show they can be prayerful, too, whenever a FEMA website directs the public to contribute its hurricane-relief funds to a right-wing ministry. Kansas senator Sam Brownback, gearing up to run for president on a faith-based, antiabortion platform, calls the role of religion in government “the great debate of our season.”
The religious right didn’t come by this prominence by accident, by casually capturing (and capitalizing on) the desire of many Americans for a more meaningful and spiritual life, nor even by the simple tactic of wrapping itself in the purloined flag of the founders and in a misconstrued Constitution. They organized, crafting a far-flung and intricate network of political pulpits, media outlets, funding organs and think tanks, and integrating it into the political machinery of the Republican right. The religious right shares the conservatives’ will to power and also, more than previously, a conviction that it is obligated by destiny to remake the country in its image.
This issue of Mother Jones is dedicated to illuminating the interplay between conservative Christianity and the U.S. government. We regard the movement’s history, chart its arteries of funding and influence, and locate its wellsprings of support and aspiration. And we also show how such national issues as Intelligent Design and the death penalty are being debated within the church. It’s been more than 200 years since the founders established the separation of church and state. The assault on that principle now under way promises to alter not only our form of government but our concept of religion as well.
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The Marriage of Religions and Governments
Prior to our forefathers, or any man made governments or for that matter people, there was a heavenly (spiritual) government (kingdom). That government faced the same basic problem that all governments face how to govern its citizens. The leader of this government, was God, who decided the best way to govern would be through unselfish love, giving not taking. All the citizens were free to do what they wanted, as long as their motive was based on that law. Through time this government had a rebel growing in among its administration. This government grew and developed other ways of expanding. In the process, new citizens from a distant land, called earth, were given the opportunity to join this heavenly government. This is my opinion based on scriptures I’ve found in the course of reading the bible. But that is not the discussion here, government and religions are.
The first citizen of this new land was called man. Now the man, being the only one of his kind, was alone in a garden where all he needed was provided for. He had conversations with a reprehensive from God that gave him a command saying (Genesis 2: 16 & 17), “From every tree in the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.” Many years pass as the man observed the behavior of other creatures called animals and named each based on their behavior. But the man was still the only one of his kind. God wanted to give him a mate, for he knew the man was lonely. The man named his mate woman, because from man this one was taken. At this time the rebel, Satan, was given his opportunity to implement his plan. That plan was simple, to challenge the right of the God to tell anyone, spirit being or physical being, what was selfish or unselfish. Once the seed of selfish desire was planted and convinced the man and woman to eat of the fruit, his plan was successful. This one act opened a door, for all citizens, that could not be shut without an answer.
God could have destroyed the rebel, but that would not have answered the question. Do we have the right to govern ourselves? God, in is His wisdom, knew he would have to allow this question to be answered. In Genesis 3: 15 God said to the rebel, “And I shall put enmity between you (Satan's government) and the woman (Gods’ government) and between your seed (selfishness) and her seed (unselfishness).” This woman was not Eve, because the next sentence says, “ He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” So now the stage was set for all kinds of different governments to lead the way to prosperity. Since the beginning of mans existence religion has always been involved with governments. All one has to do is check the history books to know that. Why, because when the religious leaders control the people, they also control of their government leaders. God even gave the nation of Israel a visible government after they ask for it, but He knew it would never work. Christ is the reprehensive of Gods’ government (the woman) and, Satan the rebel, did bruise Christ in the heel by having him put to death. It was only a bruise because Satan has no control over death. Christ was given life again by God. Christ whole life was acts of unselfish love, putting others ahead of his self. It is He that shows the way to interact with governments. When Satan took him to an unusually high mountain (Matthew 4: 8&9) he showed Christ all the kingdoms (governments) of the world and told him he would give them to Christ if he would do but one act of worship to him. Christ did not deny that the kingdoms were his to give, but Christ pledged allegiance to Gods’ government of unselfish love. Jesus told Pilate in John 18:36, “my kingdom is no part of this world.” Again Jesus in a prayer to his father asks for help for his followers in saying at John 17:14, “they are not part of the world, just as I am no part of the world.” Time is proving that man can never rule over man, because of selfish love.
People may want to do some reading in their bibles before, casting their next vote, just because their preacher tells them God has chosen this candidate. The separation of church and state, is something the bible has always approved of.
I do not follow the bible in
I do not follow the bible in any way, shape or form. Religion in many ways to me, is tantamount to slavery. It has been said that true evil smiles at you while it shakes your hand, and then stabs you in the back. You never see it coming, and normally mistake it for being moral, and "right".
The only way we can be truly free, is to have a government that backs people like me, just as much as the other people, showing no preferrence to any one group. Anything else is Un-American.
Amen to that NMilluminati
I couldn't agree with you more. I have had first hand experience with the true evil of which you speak - smiles, shakes your hand and stabs you in the back, usually when you don't go along with what they are preaching. Seems to me our constitution says we are all created equal, but these "hate mongers" that speak of God's love in one breath and blame catastrophic events like Katrina on God's wrath against homosexuals, or gun down men like Dr. Tiller in another, live in a realm of ignorance and hypocrisy. It is time to take back our country from these right wing-nuts and let people live and let live. If they want to believe what they do, great, just don't push those beliefs on me. Let us live our lives in harmony with one another, and Mother Nature, never preferring one over another, then, as you said we will truly be free!
