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God
God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?
Thomas Jefferson
I have been asked why in the previous mini essay entitled "Tyranny" the issue of God received such prominence. Good question. That chapter addressed the issue of political correctness and the attempt by some to impose, in Jefferson's words, "a form of tyranny over the mind of man." It is not that God in any form is the central character in this tyranny over the mind of man drama; it is simply that God in all of His forms has taken the full brunt of a major frontal assault by the forces of political correctness. God, quite simply, has been such a convenient and oft attacked target of the combined armies of “correct speak” that to address the issue of mind tyranny and ignore the concept of God is to ignore the issue at hand. I am certainly not a religious zealot, nor am I obsessed with the issue of God, religion, the church or any form of organized religion. I am also not going to claim that forces attacking God are led by Field Marshall Von Satan or General Hideki Devil. The people that wish to rid the nation of any reference to God are doing so in the belief that it is a reasonable application of their First Amendment guarantee of free speech.
The very root of the problem can be seen in the most illogical of places; the Bill of Rights, a document written by the Founding Fathers for the express purpose of ensuring that the government described in the Constitution protected the rights of its citizens by declaring in the first ten amendments to the Constitution exactly what those rights are. The very first words from the very first Article of the Bill of Rights declare: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Constitutional scholars, lawyers, atheists, civil liberties unions, churches and all manner of elected officials and political figures have debated the meaning of these words for over 200 years. While there is no consensus as to the true intent of the First Amendment, there is much speculation and manipulation by those parties wishing to make their case based on Constitutional grounds. The first interpretation seems to be the most logical, and is the belief that I hold on the subject. Remember that the Founding Fathers were fighting tyranny, and tyranny in every form was the antithesis of the design for their new nation. One of the most obvious manifestations of tyranny was seen in the form of the Church of England. Thus, the very first words that they inscribed in their declaration of the rights of the people was that the government, Congress, was prohibited from establishing a national or government sponsored church.
This "Establishment" clause seems self explanatory and outside the realm of controversy as to its meaning; the government will not establish a church, period. Not so fast. Delete that period and add a comma so as to make room for interpretative manipulation or, my favorite, historical revisionism. Here, there are those who claim that the Founding Fathers really meant something else. The problem with a "living document" such as the Constitution is that it is open to interpretation and subjective evaluation. In fact, there are nine people in Washington D.C. who make a lifetime career of interpreting and evaluating a nearly 220 year old document. What else could non-establishment of religion mean? Well, to some it means that Congress and the government in general, should divorce itself from any reference to God. Hence, the far fetched, yet Supreme Court upheld, notion of a "separation of church and state." I have challenged all of the students in the many classes that I have taught on the subject at both the graduate and undergraduate level to cite the reference to "separation of church and state" in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States. Even with the promise of an automatic "A" for the successful student, none have been able to find such a reference; such a reference simply does not exist. It seems paradoxical that a nation founded on a belief in God and establishing its government with such a belief should then be separate from God. However, I find this to be another case of applying logic to an emotional and oftentimes illogical debate.
The second clause in the Amendment, "prohibiting the free exercise thereof" is less contentious although potentially more volatile. In this argument, we all should have the right to exercise our religious freedom as we see fit; unless it involves school prayer, Christmas decorations in public areas, the Ten Commandments in a courthouse etc., etc. With all of this said, we still arrive at the same destination; any attempt to force people to change their civil language, their spiritual faith, their non-threatening beliefs or their polite behavior in public on the topic of God is a form of "tyranny over the mind of man." But there remains a larger question. Should this nation, clearly founded on a strong belief in God, have its present government and courts eliminate God? If so, does this not undermine the basic foundation upon which this nation was built? In writing the very Declaration of Independence that formed this nation, Jefferson said that the American people needed to move to "a separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them." He then proclaimed for the world to hear that the people "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Additional immortal words inscribed in the Statue Chamber of the Jefferson Memorial declare; "Almighty God hath created the mind free...All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments...are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion..." Lawyers can argue, people can debate, fanatics and extremists can vent; I and Thomas Jefferson believe in God and Country.
