The Federal "Wall" Between Church and State
When Thomas Jefferson was serving in the Virginia legislature he helped initiate a bill to have a day of fasting and prayer, but when he became President, Jefferson said there was no authority in the federal government to proclaim religious holidays. In a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association dated January 1, 1802, he explained his position and said the Constitution had created "a wall of separation between church and state." 97
In recent years the Supreme Court has undertaken to use this metaphor as an excuse for meddling in the religious issues arising within the various states. It has not only presumed to take jurisdiction in these disputes, but has actually forced the states to take the same hands-off position toward religious matters even though this restriction originally applied only to the federal government. This obvious distortion of the original intent of Jefferson (when he used the metaphor of a "wall" separating church and state) becomes entirely apparent when the statements and actions of Jefferson are examined in their historical context.
It will be recalled that Jefferson and Madison were anxious that the states intervene in religious matters so as to provide for equality among all religions, and that all churches or religions assigned preferential treatment should be disestablished from such preferment. They further joined with the other Founders in expressing an anxiety that ALL religions be encouraged in order to promote the moral fiber and religious tone of the people. This, of course, would be impossible if there were an impenetrable "wall" between church and state on the state level. Jefferson's "wall" was obviously intended only for the federal government, and the Supreme Court application of this metaphor to the states has come under severe criticism. 98
Religious Problems Must Be Solved Within the Various States
In Thomas Jefferson's second inaugural address, he virtually signalled the states to press forward in settling their religious issues since it was within their jurisdiction and not that of the federal government:
"In matters of religion, I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the general government. I have therefore undertaken on no occasion to prescribe religious exercises suited to it; but have left them, as the Constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of state or church authorities acknowledged by the several religious societies." 99
Jefferson, along with the other Founders, believed that it was within the power of the various states to eliminate those inequities which existed between the various faiths, and then pursue a policy of encouraging religious institutions of all kinds because it was in the public interest to use their influence to provide the moral stability needed for "good government and the happiness of mankind." 100
Jefferson's resolution for disestablishing the Church of England in Virginia was not to set up a wall between the state and the church but simply, as he explained it, for the purpose of "taking away the privilege and preeminence of one religious sect over another, and thereby [establishing] ... equal rights among all." 101
Affirmative Programs to Encourage All Religions
on the State Level
In view of the extremely inflexible and rigid position which the U.S. Supreme Court has taken in recent years concerning the raising up of a "wall" between state government and religion, it is remarkable how radically different the Founders' views were upon such matters.
Take, for example, their approval of religious meetings in tax-supported public buildings. With the Founders there was no objection as to the propriety of using public buildings for religious purposes, for that was to be encouraged. The only question was whether or not the facilities could be made available equally to all denominations desiring them. Notice how Jefferson reflects his deep satisfaction in the way the churches were using the local courthouse in Charlottesville, near Jefferson's home:
"In our village of Charlottesville, there is a good degree of religion, with a small spice only of fanaticism. We have four sects, but without either church or meeting-house. The court-house is the common temple, one Sunday in the month to each. Here, Episcopalian and Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist, meet together, join in hymning their Maker, listen with attention and devotion to each others' preachers, and all mix in society with perfect harmony." 102
One cannot help asking the modern Supreme Court: "Where is the wall of separation between church and state when the courthouse is approved for the common temple of all the religious sects of a village?"
Of course, Jefferson would be the first to require some other arrangement if all of the churches could not be accommodated equally, but so long as they were operating equally and harmoniously together, it was looked upon as a commendable situation. The fact that they were utilizing a tax-supported public building was not even made an issue.
Religious Principles Undergird Good Government
What doctrines were Americans so anxious to teach one another in order that they might remain united and well governed? These religious precepts turned out to be the heart and soul of the entire American political philosophy. They were taken from the books of John Locke, Sir William Blackstone, and other great thinkers of the day, who took them directly from the Bible. Thus, religion and the American institutions of freedom were combined. In fact, the Founders had taken the five truths we have already identified as "religion" and had built the whole Constitutional framework on top of them. The sanctity of civil rights and property rights, as well as the obligation of citizens to support the Constitution in protecting their unalienable rights, were all based on these religious precepts. Therefore, having established the general principle that "without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained," we now turn to the specific principles on which this general concept was based.
Fifth Principle: All things were created by God, therefore upon Him all
mankind are equally dependent, and to Him they are equally responsible.
The Reality of a Divine Creator
How Can One Know There Is a God?
Getting to Know God
Concerning God's Revealed Law Distinguishing Right from Wrong
The Nearness of God
George Washington
James Madison
"In God We Trust"
The Reality of a Divine Creator
The Founders vigorously affirm throughout their writings that the foundation of all reality is the existence of the Creator, who is the designer of all things in nature and the promulgator of all the laws which govern nature.
The Founders were in harmony with the thinking of John Locke as expressed in his famous Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In it Locke pointed out that it defies the most elementary aspects of reason and experience to presuppose that everything in existence developed as a result of fortuitous circumstance. The mind, for example, will not accept the proposition that the forces of nature, churning about among themselves, would ever produce a watch, or even a lead pencil, let alone the marvelous intricacies of the human eye, the ear, or even the simplest of the organisms found in nature. All these are the product of intelligent design and high-precision engineering.
Locke felt that a person who calls himself an "atheist" is merely confessing that he has never dealt with the issue of the Creator's existence. Therefore, to Locke an atheist would be to that extent "irrational," and out of touch with reality; in fact, out of touch with the most important and fundamental reality.
How Can One Know There Is a God?
In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke insisted that everyone can know there is a divine Creator. It is simply a case of thinking about it. 103
To begin with, each person knows that he exists. With Descartes each person can say, "Cogito ergo sum." With God, each person can say, "I am!"
Furthermore, each person knows that he is something. He also knows that a something could not be produced by a nothing. Therefore, whatever brought man and everything else into existence also ha
d to be something.
It follows that this something which did all of this organizing and arranging would have to be all-knowing to the full extent required for such an organization and arrangement.
This something would therefore have to be superior to everything which had resulted from this effort. This element of superiority makes this something the ultimate "good" for all that has been organized and arranged. In the Anglo-Saxon language, the word for supreme or ultimate good is "God."
Getting to Know God
Man is capable of knowing many things about God, Locke said. The Creator must of necessity be a cogitative (reasoning or thinking) being, for man is a cogitative (reasoning) being. Certainly a non-cogitative being like a rock could never have produced a cogitative being like a man. We may also know that the divine Creator has a sense of compassion and love, for he gave mankind these sublime qualities.
The Creator would also reflect a fine sense of right and wrong, and also a sense of indignation or even anger with those who violate the laws of "right" action. In other words, God has a strong sense of "justice." Remorse for wrong also arouses a sense of compassion in the Creator, just as it does in human beings whom he designed.
There are other attributes of man which human beings must necessarily share with their Creator if man is "made in the image of God." One would be a sense of humor. The Creator must also be a great artist on the visual plane. Everything the Creator organizes is in terms of beauty through color, form, and contrasts. Obviously, man can enjoy only to a finite degree the capacity of his Creator to appreciate the vast panorama of sensory satisfaction which we call "beauty."
So, as John Locke says, there are many things man can know about God. And because any thoughtful person can gain an appreciation and conviction of these many attributes of the Creator, Locke felt that an atheist has failed to apply his divine capacity for reason and observation.
The American Founding Fathers agreed with Locke. They considered the existence of the Creator as the most fundamental premise underlying ALL self-evident truth. It will be noted as we proceed through this study that every single self-evident truth enunciated by the Founders is rooted in the presupposition of a divine Creator.
Concerning God's Revealed Law Distinguishing Right from Wrong
The Founders considered the whole foundation of a just society to be structured on the basis of God's revealed law. These laws constituted a moral code clearly distinguishing right from wrong. This concept was not new with the Founders. This was the entire foundation of all religious cultures world-wide. It was particularly emphasized in the Judeo-Christian structure of the English law. No authority on the subject was more widely read than William Blackstone (1723-1780). He established the classes for the first law school at Oxford in 1753. His lectures on the English law were published in 1765 and were as widely read in America as they were in England.
In his Commentaries on the Laws of England, Blackstone propounded the generally accepted idea that "when the Supreme Being formed the universe" he organized it and then "impressed certain principles upon that matter, from which it can never depart, and without which it would cease to be." 104
He then went on to say that the will of God which is expressed in the orderly arrangement of the universe is called "the law of nature," and that there are laws for "human" nature just as surely as they exist for the rest of the universe. 105 He said the laws for human nature had been revealed by God, whereas the laws of the universe (natural law) must be learned through scientific investigation. 106 Blackstone stated that "upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human lives...." 107
As we shall see later, the attitude of the Founders toward God's law (both natural and revealed) gave early Americans a very high regard for the "law" as a social institution. They respected the sanctity of the law in the same way that it was honored among the Anglo-Saxons and by ancient Israel.
The Nearness of God
It is also important to note that the Founders did not look upon God as some mysterious teleological force operating automatically and indifferently in nature (as modern Deists claim), but they believed in a Creator who is both intelligent and benevolent and therefore anxious and able to respond to people's petitions when they are deserving of needed blessings and engaged in a good cause. Days of fasting and prayer were commonplace in early America. Most of the Founders continually petitioned God in fervent prayers, both public and private, and looked upon his divine intervention in their daily lives as a singular blessing. They were continually expressing gratitude to God as the nation survived one major crisis after another.
George Washington
George Washington was typical of the Founders in this respect: Charles Bracelen Flood discovered in his research that during the Revolutionary War there were at least sixty-seven desperate moments when Washington acknowledged that he would have suffered disaster had not the hand of God intervened in behalf of the struggle for independence. 108
After being elected President, Washington stressed these sentiments in his first inaugural address when he said:
"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." 109
James Madison
Madison was equally emphatic on this point when he contemplated the work of the Constitutional Convention and saw the guiding influence of God just as Washington had seen it on the battlefield. Said he:
"The real wonder is that so many difficulties should have been surmounted ... with an unanimity almost as unprecedented as it must have been unexpected. It is impossible for any man of candor to reflect on this circumstance without partaking of the astonishment. It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution." 110
"In God We Trust"
From all of this it will be seen that the Founders were not indulging in any idle gesture when they adopted the motto, "In God we trust." Neither was it a matter of superfluous formality when they required that all witnesses who testify in the courts or before Congressional hearings must take an oath and swear or affirm before God that they will tel] the truth. As Washington pointed out in his Farewell Address: "Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?" 111 In fact, it was not at all uncommon, as Alexis de Tocqueville discovered, to look with the greatest precaution upon an individual who had no religious convictions. He wrote:
"While I was in America, a witness who happened to be called at the Sessions of the county of Chester (state of New York) declared that he did not believe in the existence of God or in the immortality of the soul. The judge refused to admit the evidence, on the ground that the witness had destroyed beforehand all the confidence of the court in what he was about to say." 112
In a note de Tocqueville added:
The New York Spectator of August 23, 1831, related the fact in the following terms: "... The presiding judge remarked that he had not before been aware that there was a man living who did not believe in the existence of God; that this belief constituted the sanction [in law, that which gives binding force] of all testimony in a court of justice; and that he knew of no case in a Christian country where a witness had been permitted to testify without such belief." 113
This now brings us to the next important principle enunciated by the Founders.
Sixth Principle: All men are created equal.
The Founders wrote in the Declaration of Independence that some truths are self-evident, and one of these is the fact that all men are created equal.
Yet everyone knows that no two human beings are exactly
alike in any respect. They are different when they are born. They plainly exhibit different natural skills. They acquire different tastes. They develop along different lines. They vary in physical strength, mental capacity, emotional stability, inherited social status, in their opportunities for self-fulfillment, and in scores of other ways. Then how can they be equal?
The answer is, they can't, except in three ways. They can only be treated as equals in the sight of God, in the sight of the law, and in the protection of their rights. In these three ways all men are created equal. It is the task of society, as it is with God, to accept people in all their vast array of individual differences, but treat them as equals when it comes to their role as human beings. As members of society, all persons should have their equality guaranteed in two areas. Constitutional writer Clarence Carson describes them:
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