Founders Wanted God in State

(Note to readers: The following blog is a column I wrote for The News and Courier and Evening Post on July 16, 1989. It was the first column I wrote after being named the newspapers’ religion editor, and I’m repeating it now because it is more apropos to today than it was the day I wrote it. I lightly edited it for clarity.)

Some people think separation of church and state is as important as freedom of religion.

And some people think it is an ideal written into the U.S. Constitution.

Both assumptions are wrong. The Founding Fathers never intended a Godless government, and the Constitution is dead silent on the subject.

The Founders absolutely did intend to keep the state out of the church (and all other forms of worship). Their experiences in England led them to make freedom of religion a crucial and everlasting part of this nation’s foundation.

They also absolutely intended to prevent any denomination or school of religious thought (are you listening, MAGA Christians?) from guiding the state.

But, that did not mean they intended to keep God out of the state. Their written words on the subject make crystal clear they intended God to lead the state forever. Without God’s guidance, they seem to have agreed, the American experiment as they envisioned it would be doomed to failure.

George Washington was blunt about it when, in his Farewell Address, he said, “Of all the dispositions and habits which led to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports … And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.”

The other Founders would have agreed with that. They wanted all public schools to teach religion and morality, but only those religious tenets that are universally accepted by all major faiths. They understood that all faiths share some fundamental points, such as love thy neighbor.

Benjamin Franklin said as much in a letter to Yale University President Ezra Stiles when he wrote, “I believe in one God, the creator of the universe. That he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the foundational points in all sound religion.”

Franklin’s colleagues, not all of whom were Christians, seemed to have agreed with him. John Adams called Franklin’s points “the general principles on which the American civilization has been founded.”

The writings of other Founders indicate they felt the same.

None of them wanted to found a religion of state, but neither did anybody want to create a Godless society. Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson were adamant about it. Jefferson summarized his views in these seven points:

• The federal government must not be allowed to meddle in religious matters in any way.
  State governments have total responsibility for making certain all religious denominations are treated equally.
• Every public school should have a policy that provides for the teaching of religion and morality.
• Every religious denomination should be invited to build facilities at or near public universities so students can be instructed in their faiths.
• Public university professors should be encouraged to offer special services or classes of religious instruction in their classrooms.
• Students studying for the ministry at nearby seminaries should be given full access to public universities’ libraries.
• No tax money should be used to subsidize any religion directly.

Sobering thoughts for a secular world.

But perhaps the most sobering words – and the most prophetic words – uttered on the subject by a Founding Father came from Daniel Webster.

In an 1852 speech to the New York Historical Society, Webster said the American experiment’s future was in the hands of God, “but under his divine blessing, it will be dependent on the character and virtues of ourselves and of our posterity.”

Then Webster added:

“If we and they shall live always in fear of God and shall respect his commandments … we may have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our country … It will have no decline and fall. It will go on prospering.

“But if we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority … no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us. That shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity.

(Another note to readers: I have been criticized, rightly, for not presenting the other side’s best when I am opining, and for sometimes painting the reader into a corner without providing an escape route, a way out of this danger about which I write.

(As a step toward rectifying those shortcomings, we have taken two steps. One, we have made it much easier to reply online, and I encourage you to participate. Your words will not be edited.

(And two, beginning today, for those who are interested in further reading on whatever subject I’m writing about, we are adding at the end of every posting a list of a few other writings, some that agree with me and some that do not.

(The choices will be made by my friend, partner, and one of my chief critics, Todd Chas. Todd does everything related to this blog from designing the format to handling the technical work to choosing the art (all I do is write it), and now he has volunteered to do the research needed to make the new addition work. To guarantee my neutrality, I will not be involved.)

(Below is his first contribution.)