[Salon] WHAT DID THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION REALLY THINK ABOUT CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS?

WHAT DID THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION REALLY THINK ABOUT
                            CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS?
                                                 BY
                                ALLAN C. BROWNFELD
——————————————————————————————————————————
Two recent Supreme Court decisions have produced much discussion about the question of church-state relations and the place of religion in the American society. In one case, the Court overruled a school board in Washington state which it said discriminated against a football coach when it disciplined him for post-game prayers at midfield. The Court said his prayers are protected by the Constitution’s guarantee of free speech and religious exercise.

In another case, Carson v. Makin, there was a challenge to how the state of Maine made public education available to high school students in sparsely populated school districts. Previously, the state provided public funds to such students to attend a distant school of their choice—-but refused funding to those who wished to attend a sectarian school. A group of parents who wanted to send their children to sectarian schools sued, claiming that Maine’s law violated the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment by treating religious persons and groups differently than their secular counterparts. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court agreed. Chief Justice John Roberts declared that, “The state pays for tuition for certain students at certain private schools—so long as the schools are not religious. That is discrimination against religion…The program operates to identify and exclude otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise.”

Religion and its place in America has been a subject of consideration since the earliest beginnings of the new nation. There was nothing like the First Amendment anyplace in the world—-guaranteeing religious freedom and establishing separation of church and state. Elsewhere, Catholics were mistreated in Protestant countries, Protestants had few rights in Catholic countries, and Jews faced discrimination in both. In America, your religion was a private matter and the state could not interfere. But that did not mean that religion had no role to play in the new nation.

When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he appealed to God as the source of our liberty, not to man, the state, or any group of men. This is clear at the beginning of the document: “We hold these truths to be self-evident , that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights , that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

On November 1, 1777 there was the first real Proclamation of Thanksgiving by the Congress. George Washington, whose army was at Valley Forge, referred to the Proclamation of the Continental Congress in his orderly book: “Tomorrow being the day set apart by the honorable Congress for public Thanksgiving and praise, and duty calling us devoutly to express our grateful acknowledgements to God for our manifold blessings, the general directs that the army remain in its present quarters, and that the chaplains perform divine services with their several corps and brigades, and earnestly exhorts all officers and soldiers whose absence is not indispensably necessary to attend with reverence.”

Benjamin Franklin, considered one of the most skeptical of the Founders concerning religion, is reported by James Madison in his “Notes” to have made the following proposal on June 28, 1787 before the Continental Congress: “I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—-that God governs in the affairs of men…I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.”

During the administration of Thomas Jefferson, who was president from 1801 to 1809, the Capitol was used for religious services. These were generally held in the main hall of the old Senate wing, where both houses met prior to the completion of the House wing. It is said that the president himself frequently attended, that the Marine band played and that there were preachers from not only the Orthodox Protestant churches but also from Quakers, Roman Catholics and Unitarians.

In 1796, George Washington pointed out the importance of religion as regards the state in his Federal Address. He said: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports.”

James Madison opposed paying chaplains , whether in Congress or in the Army or Navy, not because of having services for these groups, but to their being conducted as a function of government and paid for by public funds. He wrote: “The establishment of the Chaplainship to Congress is a palpable violation of equal rights as well as Constitutional principles…Why should the expense of religious worship for the Legislature be paid for by the public, more than that for the Executivd or Judicial branches of government?”

Religion——and religious diversity—-played a major role for the Founding Fathers. At his inauguration in April 1789, after his inaugural address at New York’s old city hall, George Washington and those attending the inauguration marched to St. Paul’s Chapel for a religious service presided over by Samuel Provost, the Episcopal Bishop of New York. Among those in the inaugural group was Rabbi Moses Seixas of Shearith Israel Congregation, which had been established in 1654. Later, in a letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, Washington made clear that in the United States, “Happily, all possess alike liberty of conscience.”

The National Seal of the United States shows the eye of Providence on its reverse—-a pyramid representing the thirteen original colonies in the all seeing eye of Jehovah is surrounded by a cloud of glory symbolizing the protecting Divine Providence.

There was, however, no unanimity even at that time as to what the role of government in regard to religion was to be. James Madison, for example, opposed the incorporation by the federal government of religious institutions, believing that such action would tend to break down the “wall of separation between church and state.” He extended his views concerning freedom of religion to exclude the teaching of religion in public institutions. Writing to Edward Everett of Massachusetts about the position of religion in public institutions and universities, he evidently had the experience of the University of Virginia in mind: “There seems to be no alternative but between a public university without a theological professorship and the sectarian seminaries without a university.”

In laying his plans for the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson adopted a different approach from that of his fellow advocate of religious freedom, James Madison. Jefferson wrote: “The proof of the being of God, the Creator, Preserver, and Supreme Ruler of the Universe, the author of all the relations of morality, and the laws and obligations which these infer will be in the province of the professor of Ethics.”

Jefferson believed that civil liberties in the last analysis were dependent upon the Creator: “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gifts of God?”

Those today who want government to be neutral between religion and secularism or atheism seem to misunderstand the thinking of the Framers of the Constitution on this question. In 1787, we were emerging from a situation in which each colony had an established church, or barring this had given several religious groups a preferred place and status. The era was one in which the very concept of religious freedom was a revolutionary one. For Madison to propose the First Amendment was an important step forward. To say that he meant to place government in a “neutral” position —-as against religion on the one hand and secularism or agnosticism on the other—-is hardly borne out by the facts. The intention of Madison, Mason and Jefferson seems to have been that government be neutral about endorsing any particular religion— but not neutral about religion and a belief in God itself.

The historical evidence points to the fact we are largely a religious nation . Madison, Jefferson, Adams and other founders of the Republic and authors of the Constitution thought a great deal about religious questions. Jefferson, hardly an orthodox Christian, believed our rights come from “the Creator.” All believed that religion and society went hand in hand. And could not be separated. Each believed in religious freedom, but none believed in an absence of the atmosphere of belief in God from our public life.

As the discussion over the Supreme Court’s most recent decisions concerning religion and church-state relations indicates, the debate Jefferson, Madison and other framers of the Constitution had, still continues, and is likely to continue into the future. Removing the idea of God from public life was certainly not the agenda of the Founding Fathers. They broke new ground in providing religious freedom and ensuring religious neutrality, but did not intend to remove God, who they viewed as the author of our liberty, from society.

We live at a time when our society seems to be unraveling. Mass shootings dominate the news. Members of Congress receive hundreds of death threats. Democrats and Republicans view themselves as enemies, not friendly rivals engaged in a common enterprise. Civility, which is necessary for a democracy to endure, is disappearing.    Reviewing the history of the role God once played in our society would be a useful enterprise at this time. The insights of Jefferson, Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and others of that era would be useful at the present time. It is hard to believe that we had leaders like that at the very beginning of our country. Comparing them to those who have held political leadership in recent years is not an encouraging enterprise. Fortunately, we still have the opportunity to learn from the Founding generation, if only we would.
                                             ##