To deny religion, and
specifically Christianity—because, let’s face it, that’s what we’re really
talking about here—a role in our government today would be to ignore our
Constitution, and turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the plain and simple
history of this great nation.
Time and again, our
Founders looked to the Word of God, and sought His Divine guidance. They
understood well that their efforts without God were in vain. As John Adams
noted, “It is religion and morality
alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely
stand.” In fact, long before the winds of revolution began to
blow in America,
the early settlers accepted and operated from this premise.
For example, ten years
after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth,
the Puritans founded the Massachusetts
Bay Colony. Under the leadership of their ministers, the Puritans established a
representative government with annual elections. By 1641 they had a “Body of
Liberties” (essentially a Bill of Rights), which was penned by the Rev.
Nathaniel Ward. This was the first legal code established by the colonists.
In 1636 the Rev. Thomas Hooker, along with other Puritan ministers,
founded Connecticut.
They also established an elective form of government. In 1638, after Hooker
preached a sermon from the first chapter of Deuteronomy on the fair and just
principles of government practiced by the nation of Israel, Roger Ludlow wrote theFundamental Orders of Connecticut. This
was the first constitution written in America. It served as a model of
government for other colonies and, eventually, a union of colonies. It also
served as a model for the U.S. Constitution.
After writing the
Declaration of Ind. (which references God 4 times), Thomas Jefferson, along
with Ben Franklin and John Adams, was appointed to a special committee to
create an official seal for the United
States. Jefferson and Franklin proposed that
one side of the seal portray Moses leading the nation of Israel. Adams
wrote, “Mr. Jefferson proposed: The children of Israel in the wilderness, led by a
cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night…”
In his inaugural address
to Congress George Washington stated:
“No people can be bound to
acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more
than the people of the United
States. Every step by which they have
advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been
distinguished by some token of providential agency…We ought to be no less
persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a
nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven
itself has ordained.”
Writing to his son, the
sixth President of the United States, John Quincy Adams said, “The law given
from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code; it
contained many statutes . . . of universal application-laws essential to the
existence of men in society, and most of which have been enacted by every
nation which ever professed any code of laws.”
John Adams noted that,
“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were…the
general principles of Christianity.”
America’s “Schoolmaster” Noah
Webster supports this in his 1832 History
of the United States when he wrote that “our citizens should early
understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the
Bible, particularly the New Testament or the Christian religion.” Webster
added, “The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of
Christ and His apostles…to this we owe our free Constitutions of Government.”
Noting the direct
influence of religion upon politics in the young U.S., French social
philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville concluded that “In the United States the
sovereign authority is religious…there is no country in the whole world in
which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men
than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility, and of its
conformity to human nature, than that its influence is most powerfully felt
over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth…The Americans combine
the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that
it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.”
In what sense, then, does
religion play a roll in the U.S.
government? To paraphrase Supreme Court Justice David Brewer: Not in the sense
that the United States has
an established religion, or that people of the U.S. are compelled to support any
religion. Americans profess a wide variety of religions, and some reject all.
Americans are free to decide such matters for themselves. The role that
religion HAS played in U.S.
government, and hopefully will continue to play, is that of a potter’s wheel.
Religion—most specifically the Christian religion—was the foundation upon which
our forefathers molded and shaped America into what she is today. Our
Constitution, laws, values, and institutions reflect this, and our history
bears it out.
Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of
Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason