“RELIGION AND THE FOUNDERS”
A Sermon by the
Sunday, November 1, 2009
All
"It is error alone," said
This statement is the best summary I
know of how the American founders felt about religion, and why they wrote the
Constitution the way they did.
"It is error alone which needs
the support of government. Truth can
stand by itself." My sermon this
morning will try to understand
If you have ever visited the
National Archives building in
The building architecture resembles
a Greek temple. When you enter, you find
yourself in a giant open room several stories high, not unlike the sanctuary of
a cathedral. Across the sanctuary, at
the center of the wall opposite the entrance -- where the altar would be found
in a cathedral ‑‑ you see a large display, specially lighted. As you approach, you notice guards protecting
the valuable display, and as you get closer, you understand why.
Underneath bulletproof glass, and
kept at carefully regulated temperatures and atmospheric conditions, your eyes
glance upon the original Constitution of the
It isn't just the guards and the
bulletproof glass that let you know how sacred this document is. If you pick up literature, you read that this
display case is unlike any other.
Underneath the display is a thick-walled, lead‑ covered
encasement, and in case of fire, earthquake, or nuclear attack, the document
will automatically be lowered and sealed into this impenetrable coffin.
You and I and the rest of the people
of the
The Shroud of Turin must surely turn
green with envy about how the Constitution is protected. No sacred object anywhere in the world enjoys
the reverential deference afforded the Constitution of the
I have deliberately described the
Constitution using explicitly religious images and language. Over two hundred years, the document has
gained for itself a nearly spiritual aura.
It has become the Bible of our republic.
Its authors are considered to be American saints. Any action that is declared to be
"unconstitutional," is treated very much like an act of sin.
In medieval Christendom, biblical
scholars examined the Bible in minute detail to look for meaning and nuance,
giving rise to such esoteric arguments as "How many angels can dance on
the head of a pin." Similarly, constitutional
scholars have examined each word of the constitution for subtle meaning and
revelation of eternal truths.
Please know that all I have said so
far is not intended to be critical of the Constitution. I want rather simply to observe that the
Constitution has been cloaked in religious garb. One cannot understand the Constitution then,
nor can one appreciate the Constitution now, without understanding the religion
surrounding it.
Yes, there is religion surrounding
the Constitution. It is not the religion
of creed, nor is it the religion of churches.
It is what some historians call the religion of the American
Enlightenment.
What I propose to do this morning is
to look at the religious influence of that American Enlightenment -- that
cultural movement which shaped the thinking of many, though not all, of the key
founders -- and suggest how the Enlightenment religion came to be reflected in
the Constitution itself.
Let me say it a bit
differently. Two hundred years ago, our
country's founders created, for the first time in Western history, a government
which was separate from sectarian religious control and influence. That was a radical experiment indeed. There was no precedent in history for
separating church and state, as they did.
But there is a historical irony in
what they did. The reasons for
separating church and state were, in fact, religious reasons -- deeply rooted
in the tradition of the American Enlightenment.
It is useful for us to look at that
tradition, and see how it is reflected in the Constitution.
I don’t want to quibble too much
about use of the word “religion” here.
Call it a “secular religion” if you prefer, but the American
Enlightenment view included a faith: a faith in democracy, a faith in human
equality and human rights – but it was a faith.
It was a faith that required separation of church and state.
There are many popular
misconceptions about the U.S. Constitution.
For example, a survey of knowledge about the Constitution shows that 51%
of the people believe the Constitution allows states to declare an official
state prayer, and 64% believe that the Constitution establishes English as the
national language.
One misconception about the
Constitution is that it is filled with explicitly religious language. While it is true that the Declaration of Independence
refers to "the Creator" and "Providence," and so forth, the
word God, or any other word referring to God, does not appear anywhere in the
Constitution. The word "religion" appears only twice: once, when it says that there shall be no
religious test for holding public office, and again, in the First Amendment,
which guarantees religious freedom and separation of church and state. So the only two sentences that mention
religion serve to prohibit the blending of religion and government..
How, then, can I say that the
Constitution reflects the religion of the American Enlightenment? To do that, we have to look at the
Enlightenment itself.
One of the classic books about this
era is entitled "The Enlightenment in
What is the religion of the American
Enlightenment? Let me try to outline the
components of that religion. My comments
do not refer, of course, to all those who participated in the Constitutional
Convention, whom we call the "Founding Fathers," but rather to those
who were most influenced by Enlightenment thought which was raging in
Europe. The people I am referring to
tend to be most of the key actors whom historians identify as most influential
in the shaping of our nation: Benjamin
Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson (who was not at the
Convention, but strongly influenced its course), and most of all James Madison,
who is credited as the most influential person in the writing of the
Constitution.
While many other delegates may have
been more traditional in their religious views, these few disciples of the
American Enlightenment had the most direct influence in crafting the language
of the Constitution.
The religion of the Enlightenment
was first of all deistic. You don't hear
much about deism these days, but in the eighteenth century, at the time of the
nation's founding, deism was probably the most dominant belief about God among
the most direct authors of the Consitution, even if it wasn't the most common
belief.
Deism is a belief in God the Creator
and sustainer of life, but certainly not God the Father or God the Judge. Deism is distinguished from theism in this
way: Does God intervene in human
affairs? Can we call upon God to help us
get out of a jam or fix something that is going wrong? Theism says "yes," God is in fact a
person who acts in human history, who hears and answers prayer, who judges,
condemns, and rewards human behavior.
The Deist says "no." To the Deist, God is the Creator and
little else. God is Nature and Nature’s
Laws, personified. It is God who set the
world in motion, who designed the laws of nature and the moral rules of
behavior, but, having begun the vast cosmic system, does not interfere as that
system unfolds.
Let me offer what is probably a
risky and very limited analogy. Someone,
somewhere, designed my
The Designer of my car left not only
instructions about repair, but also left instructions about proper maintenance:
what kind of oil to use, what size and type of parts to replace, how to avoid
damaging the engine. I ignore that
maintenance advice at my own peril. If I ignore the maintenance advice, the
Designer of my car does not step in and punish me. The system itself provides adequate
consequences.
To the Deist, God also provides
moral rules which are not unlike the maintenance suggestions for my car: it is dangerous to ignore them. God does not step in to punish if the rules
are broken; just like my car, the system itself provides its own dire
consequences without needing outside help.
This is the God of the Deist. But if my car Designer left behind
instructions for maintenance and repair of my car, what has God given us that
will help us know how to live? In the
Enlightenment religion, there are three sources of understanding God's system,
and I list them in order of descending importance: Natural Law, Reason, and Revelation (in the
18th and 19th century, these words are nearly always capitalized).
Natural law is the most important
source for understanding the universe designed by God. Enlightenment thinkers had a deep faith in
science as a revealer of truth, confident that nature operated by discoverable
laws rather than by the fiat or will of a divine ruler. This is why it was not unusual for
Enlightenment people to do the kinds of things
This Enlightenment faith in nature
developed into a religion that took the name "natural theology" -- religion
that is justified by natural law. In
1755,
But natural law did not just govern
nature. It also governed human affairs,
so that Enlightenment believers were confident of a science of government, for
example -- a government that is consistent with the way nature works. That faith is reflected in the Constitution
we inherited from them.
The second great source for understanding
God's universe is reason. There was
infinite faith in the human ability to discern truth through rational
thought. The greatest European
Enlightenment thinker,
Recall
The third source for understanding
God's universe was revelation. Specifically, this means biblical revelation. To most of the American Enlightenment, the
Bible remained a valuable resource, but primarily for understanding
morality. They certainly did not accept
the Bible in any literal, text‑book sense. And they were quite skeptical about the
creeds that developed out of the Bible.
Mostly, they looked to the Bible for
truths about morality. For most of them,
Christianity was primarily useful for its moral teachings.
Deism, Natural Law, Reason, and Ethical
Revelation -- these are the central tenets of the religion of the
Enlightenment. They were passionately
believed, and they became the background for most of their thinking about
issues of politics and society.
It remains now to say a few words
about how these ideas became reflected in the constitutional treatment of
religion.
The most significant thing that the
Constitution says about how government and religion should relate -- is that
they shouldn't. "Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof." In the words of
It is difficult to overstate how
radical this provision was at the time. All other countries had
"established" religions -- that is, clergy were paid by taxes,
government had a say about creeds, the church had a role in government. The church was an arm of government, as the
government was an arm of the church, so that when government spoke, it was
granted divine authority. To say that a
religion is "established" is to say that government formally
recognizes and supports one specific religious group over all others. And you can be sure that government expected
something in return for its support. Not
only did other countries have established religions, but most of the colonies
had established religions as well. With
rare exceptions such as
Radical as it was, the system of
separation of church and state was widely accepted, and it was accepted for
reasons arising from the religion of the American Enlightenment.
"It is error alone," said
To the Enlightenment mind, the
establishment of religion was a violation of the laws of nature, and therefore
a violation of the laws of God. Through
reason, all people can come to know truth.
That was the faith of the Enlightenment religion. Truth does not need government to defend
it. But error, falsehood, bad religion
can only prevail if it is artificially promoted by government.
In the Virginia Declaration of
Religious Freedom,
This underlying faith in reason and
natural law led to another radical view that supported separation of church and
state. Religious conviction, they felt,
must be formed by "persuasion and not coercion".
According to the deism of the
American Enlightenment, God set the world in motion, making it self-perpetuating,
and then stepped out of human affairs. Any time government establishes or lends
its support to religion, government presumes to speak for, or on behalf of,
God. To the deists among the founders,
such a system violates the divine scheme of deism because government seeks to
bring God into human affairs, having God meddle with society. The only system consistent with the religion
of the American Enlightenment is to separate religion from government.
To the founders, that separation is
healthy for both religion and for government.
It is clear that they thought government sponsored religion corrupts
both religion and government. It
corrupts government because government presumes to have divine authority, which
inevitably leads to tyranny. It corrupts
religion, because it violates the private nature of religious belief and makes
belief a political matter.
"Experience witnesseth that
ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy
of Religion, have had the contrary operation.
During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of
Christianity been on trial. What has
been its fruits? More or less in all
places, pride and indolence in the Clergy;
ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry,
and persecution....
"What influence in fact have the
ecclesiastical establishments had in Civil Society? In some instances they have been seen to
erect a spiritual tyranny...; in many instances they have been seen upholding
the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been seen the
guardians of the liberties of the people."
It is one of the great ironies of
history that at the time of the writing of the Constitution, the Enlightenment
founders formed a strong alliance with the evangelical movement, and
particularly with the Baptists.
Back then, of course, separation of
church and state was a cornerstone of Baptist and evangelical thought -- and
with good reason. Baptists were a
minority religion; in no colony were they established, and in some colonies
they were persecuted by the government sponsored church. In 1784, in a letter petitioning against a
bill for government support of religion, the General Committee of Virginia
Baptists wrote this statement:
"Every person ought to be left entirely free in respect to matters
of religion. The holy Author of our
religion needs no such compulsive measures for the promotion of his cause.
Taxing the people for the support of the Gospel...will be destructive to
religious liberty."
The fact that most people find
difficult to believe is that religion is better off without the support
of government than with it. The founders
knew instinctively that good religion would thrive without the artificial
endorsement of civil government.
Near the end of his life, in 1822,
nearly forty years after the Constitution was written,
For whatever reason, the principle
that separation of church and state is healthy for religion is true. In Europe, most countries have established
religions, religions that are supported and promoted by the government --
The reason should be obvious. If government is looking out for religion, if
the state is protecting it, then religion doesn't need our support. But if we care about religion, and it is up to
us, not government, to promote it, there is greater need for people to become
active.
"It is error alone," said
The Constitution was the product of
a religious faith grounded in Enlightenment principles of democracy and
individual human rights. That
Enlightenment faith held as a central tenet that church and state be
separated.
It is true that the Constitution was
shamelessly flawed in its original. Full
citizenship was granted only to white, male, property owners. Through amendments over the years, as well as
through difficult struggle by those left out of legal society, the constitution
has improved substantially with age, and still remains a unifying symbol of the
American people.
There are many reasons why the
constitution continues to be revered as a seemingly sacred document. It is partly because the words have proven to
be incredibly durable, far beyond the imaginings of the authors
themselves. And it is partly because it
has over time earned the allegiance and confidence of nearly all factions of
our society. After all, when
But
it is also because the constitution itself is grounded in principles which
reflect religious conviction – the religion of the American environment that
honors true freedom, and disavows any intrusion by the state.
READING
from “
by
After Congress proclaimed independence
(in 1776), its declaration was solemnly read throughout the colonies. Cannons were fired, cheers raised, toasts
made, and liquor consumed. A year later,
there were unofficial celebrations with bells and fireworks along with the
cannons, cheers, and toasts. In 1778
Congress gave official orders to honor the Fourth of July and a year afterward
told its chaplains to prepare sermons suitable for the event. By the following decade, Americans were
giving similar praise to the Constitution.
Huge constitutional parades were staged in most of the new state
capitals to pay tribute.
The one in