A Christian Nation? Politely Disagreein' (and quickly duckin')...

I have been grumping and grousing inwardly about an issue for several months now, and as much as it may offend or anger some people who are really important to me, I’m at that point. You know, the one where you just have to speak your mind and move on.

I’ve considered the reactions on both ends of the spectrum – that some folks may lower their opinion of me, while others may not even find it interesting. Either way, that’s okay. These are just my opinions, nothing more. I’m not trying to convince or persuade here, I’m simply expressing my own frustration as I personally experience it in this highly charged political climate. If anything, I hope it will inspire you to post your own opinions and start a real conversation.

My beef is this – I’m just “fit to be tied” with hearing over and over, ad naseam, that we’re moving further and further away from our nation’s “Christian heritage.”

I, personally, am a joyful Christian and I thank God every day that I have that freedom in this country. Yet, I don’t believe we are, or were ever meant to be, a “Christian nation.”

It seems to me that our Founding Fathers left England, in part, to get away from a country with an “official religion.” They were sick of taxation without representation, to be sure; but I think they were also sick and tired of being run roughshod over by the Church of England. I think they wanted to shout and shake their fists at the Mother Church, “You’re not the boss of me!” But, well, she was. So they left.

When they formed this More Perfect Union, I don’t believe they formed it so they could create a new dogma. I don’t believe they said, “Let’s create a Christian country, where we can impose our Christian views on everyone who settles here.”

Nope. I think our Founding Fathers said, we want something different. We want a country that cultivates FREEDOM of religion. A choice AMONG religions, or no religion at all. A nation where each individual is free to explore and express his unique spiritual passion with great gusto. Where small or gargantuan groups of individuals are free to gather together in the name of organized religion of any brand or flavor if they want to do so, with no political or personal repercussions.

I think the separation of church and state was also intended, though, to keep the CHURCH from interfering with the STATE. It seems to me that the goal was to protect the process of objective legislative and judicial decision making, based ONLY upon reasonable fact and vigorous debate. I think it’s quite possible that the Founding Fathers believed we could find and stake a claim on the moral high ground without sacrificing our country’s soul to any particular brand of religious zeal.

I believe that an objective look at many of the principle players in our country’s formation and early growth – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, James Monroe, and of course, Thomas Paine, who took a huge amount of heat for writing The Age of Reason, perceived at the time to be shockingly anti-Christian – would show them to be either lukewarm Christians or outright Deists, depending upon whose interpretation you believe.

Either way, these men had HUGE opportunities to make a strong Christian stand in the documents they created to guide this country; and yet, they made a purposeful decision NOT to do so. The Constitution, which is generally bandied about as “proof” that we are a Christian nation, only mentions religion once – in noting that there will be no religious test for a man to hold government office. Any mention of God is limited only to the way the date was expressed in the signature (the Year of Our Lord, 1787), which was simply the formal custom at the time, rather than any real nod to Christianity.

Our nation’s original official motto – E pluribus unum, adopted in 1782 – seems to me to be true to the ideal of religious neutrality in our government. It wasn’t until 1956 that “In God We Trust” was enacted as a replacement for, or companion to, the original motto.

The slogan first appeared on our money as a result of a sort of religious revival sweeping the country during the Civil War. A Protestant Pastor requested to the Treasury that it be inscribed on our coins in 1861, but it took 11 more years before it came about, and the phrase wasn’t consistently placed on all US coins until the late 1930’s. It didn’t appear on our paper money until 1957. The phrase seems to originate from a line in the Star-Spangled Banner, again, written during wartime (the War of 1812), and likely invoking the ideal that God is on “our side” of the war.

The statement, “One Nation under God,” was only added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, nearly 180 years after our nation’s founding and 11 years after the Supreme Court had already ruled that school children could not be forced to recite the Pledge in school. All the legislation and hubbub surrounding this in 2004 was just silly, in my opinion.

Decorating Statehouses or courthouses or other government properties with the Ten Commandments or the Bible or pictures and statues of Jesus isn’t offensive to me. It does seem illogical and possibly illegal, though, since the clear, stated, Constitutional intention of our Founding Fathers was that government should have no involvement in religion and vice versa.

In addition, once you open that can of worms, I think you should be ready for the obvious argument that if the statue of the Ten Commandments gets to stay, then you better clear a spot for whatever it is the Buddhists, the atheists, the Hindus, Muslims and other taxpaying non-Christians might like to look at when they visit.

I say all of this, not because I don’t love God, or because I don’t believe Christianity has been important in the hearts and souls of the people of our nation. I simply don’t believe it was ever intended to color the official identity or the legislative and judicial work of our government. The instances in which it has done so, in my opinion, reflect the unfortunate success of some seriously misguided efforts by specific individuals or groups.

Most of all, I personally believe our Founding Fathers would roll over in their graves if they knew that state or Federal laws were being proposed, written or defended… that individual rights were being impeded, limited, or disallowed… on the basis  of, “The Bible Tells Me So.”

There are specific examples that do have my knickers in a knot. But then, that’s probably a whole n’other blog post for a whole n’other day…