When I hear anyone claim that separation of church and state doesn’t exist, and that the United States is a Christian nation, I have to chuckle at their lack of understanding. There are lots of Christian citizens, for certain, just as there are many Americans of other faiths. But we are not a Christian nation, nor were we founded to be a religious state.
Opinion
We were founded to be a nation in which all citizens are free to believe in any god they want, or to not believe. Emphasis on free.
The original 13 colonies were religious colonies to be sure, and there was no separation between church and state. But the First Amendment to our Constitution changed that forever.
Here’s an example. In the Virginia Colony in the mid-1700s, the Anglican Church was the official state religion. A Virginian could not hold public office unless he was a member of the state-sanctioned church.
The colony also levied taxes on all citizens, regardless of religion, that went directly to the Church of England clergy, to the church hierarchy and to support church property, a wealth transfer that the Wyoming Constitution strictly prohibits today.
State and church were so intertwined that colonial government enforced church law. Heresy was a capital crime under colonial law. If a Virginian disagreed with Anglican Church doctrine, or bad-mouthed the Archbishop of Canterbury, it was the colony that prosecuted and punished the offense because church and state were virtually the same entity.
Those church laws were not voted upon by the citizens, but were handed down by clerics who were themselves not elected. Yet, citizens, regardless of denomination, were punished if they did not obey those laws. When there is no separation of church and state, that is what citizens can expect.
Thomas Jefferson came of age under Virginia’s repressive church/state thumb. When he was elected to the Virginia General Assembly, he drafted and passed the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786, a year before our Constitution was drafted.
The Virginia Statute was an Enlightenment Age document and clearly expressed the primacy of human freedom over religious dogma. Under that secular law, all people were free to express their religious beliefs without interference from the state. All religious beliefs, not just Christianity, were liberated from state control. It was among the first expressions of the separation between church and state in human history.
And it was the model for James Madison’s First Amendment.
This is the constitutional framework that exists today, regardless of what Christian nationalists or hair-on-fire mercantile evangelists preach. Human spirituality is free from the greedy hands of the political state. What is Caesar’s is rendered unto Caesar, and what is God’s is rendered unto God. That’s regardless of what God is worshiped or which political party holds power.
The First Amendment, in fact, the very first part of it, guarantees government cannot establish a religion or prevent anyone from practicing their own religion. That guarantee leaves no room for government in the world of faith, and vice versa. It is a clear separation.
In the United States, under our Constitution, religion is free of government control and government is free of religious control. I would have it no other way.
Absent that separation, theocracies emerge where governments impose and enforce religious laws, as in countries subject to Sharia Law, on all of the citizens. And governments are free to engage in bloody atrocities like the Spanish Inquisition or the Crusades to force their religious belief on others.
A jaundiced view of things might conclude that this is the intent of the politically active religious zealots in today’s America. If so, it runs counter to everything this country was founded upon.
To avoid any misunderstanding, I’ll testify here and now that I believe in God and love Jesus as much as anyone. But I’ll resist any attempt by my government to force me to believe or tell me how to worship. Nor will I try to force the same on anyone else.
Both a life of faith and a decision not to believe are deeply personal and individual choices, and our system of government protects our right to choose. Realistically, no law can be written that will force the innermost human heart to believe, not to believe or how to believe. That is simply not government’s dominion.
Jesus himself articulated this separation of church and state best in Luke 17:21 when he told the Pharisees, “The kingdom of God is within you.”
It is not in the courthouse, nor in the Capitol building, the kingdom of God is within you. Thank you, Jesus and Jefferson for drawing that clear line!
There are about 46,000 denominations worldwide. Let’s throw that into the mix of government and see what happens.
Well articulated, Rod. Unfortunately, it seems that the current president, his cabinet, and all of the members of Congress who have failed to live up to the oaths of office they took, don’t care much what the constitution says.
I agree wholeheartedly that there should not be a state religion or that anyone has a right to tell you what you should believe. As the old hymn goes, “You got to walk that lonesome valley. You got to walk it by yourself. Ain’t nobody else can walk it for you. You got to walk it by yourself.”
Whether you believe in the eternal judgement or if as John Prine sang, “When you’re dead, you’re a dead pecker head,” you face them both on your own.
That being said that “Stone Age book” proves that humans have not changed one bit in the thousands of years since it was written. We are still the arrogant, greedy, selfish and ignorant humans described in the old testament. Dave Gustafson
The belief that we are a Christian nation is a cancer eating away at our core, and, like Rod pointed out, untrue. If we embrace Christian Nationalism, we cease being the United States of America.
While I agree with most of the article, I disagree that the First Amendment requires “separation” between state and religion. If that were the case the First Amendment would say that, but it doesn’t. That position also ignores America’s longstanding tradition and history. Jefferson himself prayed for divine wisdom and guidance during both of his inaugural addresses. The day after the First Amendment was proposed, Congress urged President Washington to proclaim “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God”. Congressional sessions have opened with a chaplain’s prayer ever since the First Congress. While America does not nor should it have an established religion, to say that religion must be completely “separate” from public life ignores history, tradition and the clear language of the First Amendment.
Combining state and church compromises both to the point that neither are effective.
An excellent job of clarifying the stance out government and people took so long ago!
The Bill of Rights was arranged in the order of importance in restraining against government overreach, with the 1st Amendment being the most important. Tilting the balance against religion will cause a 2nd Amendment response, just as surely as tilting the government toward religion will result in the same outcome. Studying history is your friend.
It is pretty clear that the Wyoming Legislature and the current SCOTUS are tilting the balance toward a christian nationalist state. I hope reason will prevail, but I remain a staunch 2A supporter in case the revivalists start putting on hoods and burning crosses, if I do not supplicate myself to those interpreting a stone age book, that rightly gets no consideration in our Founding documents.
Spot on! Well written!
Well said. Of course most of our leaders in this state won’t believe a word of it.
Politicians today are stridently pushing their religious beliefs onto the electorate. They are bullies that are demonizing and passing laws against those that don’t fit their litmus test. The lives of “others” have become sheer hell.
Thank you Rod! Can I have an Amen brothers and sisters!
AMEN!
As always, you state so succinctly what I believe. Thank you for your editorials that emphasize what many people have forgotten or prefer to ignore!
Amen! I’ve thought of writing letters to editors of a similar nature. But Mr. Miller did a better job!
New Testament writers never advocated political activism against Rome. Rather, we are told to be in subjection to our government.
Citizens today are largely unaware of the religious backgrounds of the 13 colonies.
Maybe articles about those colonies need to be written for our unaware neighbors.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you for this simple yet well-written commentary that eloquently describes the historical and legal separation of church and state, which many have seemingly forgotten or have chosen to ignore in this unsettled and turbulent period of American history.
Thank you! You so often present historical examples and facts to back up your point. Separation of church and state is essential. OFor years I have heard people say that Christianity is under attack in the U.S. Baloney! Somehow the First Amendment has become secondary to the Second Amendment.
Thank you, Rod!
Amen and thanks to Rod Miller for his editorial
Rod, you bring up founders and the Constitution.
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other,”
John Adams
You cannot make a person believe, or force religion on anyone. It must happen voluntarily.
At the same time, when the society and culture has been so morally degraded they elect their dregs to positions of power and are blind to their crimes, The Constitution no longer works as a guiding document.
Maybe start preaching Revival, Rod. If you care about the Constitution.
Chad thank you for your commentary as you once again prove why one-issue voters have wrecked this country. One-issue voters have brought the worst SCOTUS in history all the way down to the worst people in the state legislatures, especially Wyoming. Here is a litmus test, going forward. When anyone says they support Justice Samuel Alito be prepared to hear the worst reasoning on the planet.
Chad, do you support Samuel Alito?
Chad, you should balance that quote with John Adam’s statement that “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion…” Raised a Congregationalist, Adams became a Unitarian, rejecting the standard Christian beliefs as found in the Nicene Creed, such as the Trinity. What you quoted was Adams recognizing religion in general teaching moral and ethical codes that improve society, especially one in which people are free to make their own choices. Our nation’s founders made it clear that religion has no place in civil government. The fact that the words God, Jesus, Christ, Bible, etc., are not found in the Constitution of the United States is not an accident; they were omitted for a reason.
Many of you are reading into something that I didnt say.
I guess you missed where I said this.
“You cannot make a person believe, or force religion on anyone. It must happen voluntarily.”
The USA no matter what religion they observe or not, has fallen into moral bankruptcy. The Adams quote is completely accurate and I said nothing about any specific religion.
Clearly and ably explained. Thank you Rod.