THE BOULDER DAILY CAMERA - Guest Opinion
October 25, 1984
Although a considerable amount of rhetoric has been expended on the current religion in government controversy, it still appears that the general public has little appreciation or comprehension of the profound implications that the outcome of this contest will have upon civil and religious liberty in the United States.
The idea has been vigorously promulgated by the conservative coalition of religious and political forces that the general prosperity that we have enjoyed for 200 years was somehow given birth and nurtured by Christianity, that the founding fathers were Christians in the same sense as fundamentalist leaders of today, and that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights reflect Christian dogma firmly embedded in the Bible. The historical record shows quite the opposite.
The leaders of the American Revolution as well as the authors of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Washington, Franklin, Paine, Jefferson, Madison and others were in the main deists, meaning that although their political philosophies were generously leavened with New Testament morality, they were sceptical of the divinity of Jesus and openly rejected the concept oft repeated in Biblical passages of divine intervention in natural processes and in the affairs of men.
The Constitution itself is based on simple pragmatic principles, designed to guide a secular, pluralistic society in harmony with the ultimate goal of achieving affluence and prosperity. It is not an extension of Judeo-Christian doctrine and one would try in vain to make case to the contrary. The religious beliefs of the founding fathers, however, were irrelevant, more-or-less, as they affected their dedication to the framing of the new republic. On viewing the political wreckage and human waste resulting from nearly two millennia of collusion between church and state, they were convinced that history provided ample proof that political freedom cannot exist where religion dictates to civil authority, and religious freedom is equally compromised where government dictates to religion.
Even on American soil in the 18th century, the colonies were not free of ecclesiastical domination since established theocracies flourished in almost every colony (save Rhode island), leaving each free to exercise its own form of tyranny within its own exclusive purview. The seminal documents first enunciating the concept separation of church and state were Madison's "Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments" and Jefferson's "Act for Establishing Religious Freedom," remarkable for their bold introduction into an unfamiliar and alien political climate. In the words of Dumas Maline, biographer of Thomas Jefferson, the most fortuitous circumstance in American history is "the fact that we became a nation and immediately separated church and state."
In writing the first amendment to the Constitution, Madison chose concise and clearly unambiguous language leaving the United States absolutely neutral with regard to religion. It specifically forbids the government to favor any religious group or religious philosophy, and it forbids the government from interfering with religious practice insofar as that practice did not violate civil law.
The recent claims of the president and his coalition of Protestant and Catholic fundamentalists, that the First Amendment and its several interpretations by the U.S. Supreme Court represent an official posture of hostility to the principles of Christianity and religion in general, are totally without merit. On the other hand, the inescapable fact is that the First Amendment is under assault now as never before in its beleaguered history. The present five-prong attack aimed at introducing state orchestrated prayer in public school; the elimination of freedom in reproductive choice; the coequal status in school textbooks of science and Christian mythology; the support of sectarian, private schools through tuition credits; and the attempt to censor literature in all forms, including such authors as Hemingway and Mark Twain, is - at the core - religiously motivated.
Freedom of conscience and intellect and the very letter of the law are imperilled where they do not meet the stamp of ecclesiastical purity in the minds of the fundamental ministers who recognize no morality outside of their own rigid, infallible doctrine.
We now face an event of more serious consequence as the new Republican Party moves openly towards the goal of establishing a religious test for the selection of U.S. judgeships, particularly to the U.S. Supreme Court, in flagrant disregard of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. Are we to stand by helplessly on Nov. 6 as these events begin to unfold inexorably to our detriment? Is our bold experiment in civil and religious freedom so brief after all?
Howard A. Garcia, a research physicist in Boulder