Guest Post by Morbo
This is the time of year when we rhapsodize about what makes America special. Lots of things make America special, but this Fourth of July I’d like to focus on one thing that I believe is unique: the way we deal with religion and government.
I write about church-state issues a lot on this blog. It’s not because I fancy myself some kind of expert but rather because I see the relationship between church and state in America as one of the best things about this country, a true gift to the rest of the world, if other countries are brave enough to take it.
Our founders had lots of good ideas, of course — but few can be called truly American, since most of them were borrowed from other societies. The ancient Greeks had democracy. The Romans had republican government for a while. Habeas Corpus? It’s in the Magna Carta.
This is not to say that the United States did not refine or improve these concepts. We did. But our founders did not come up with them. They did devise the American church-state model from whole cloth. From the research I’ve done, it seems that no other nation or peoples set up religious freedom the way we did with a two-pronged guarantee of free exercise of religion and no establishment. I call it what it is: separation of church and state. And it works.
Prior to the creation of the United States, some countries experimented with toleration. They extended religious freedom, but usually within the framework of some type of established church or preferred faith. This was a step in the right direction but did not go far enough. It’s nice to be allowed to exist, to be tolerated, but real liberty finds no refuge on such a fragile platform.
George Washington expressed it well in his letter to the Touro Synagogue:
“The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live in under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”
Before our Constitution, the idea that government could survive without the prop of religion was unthinkable. After the Constitution and Bill of Rights were ratified, some ministers were sure the new nation would not survive. After all, its governing charter was secular and God was not even appealed to in a general way.
The descendents of these people are still with us today. Every time I hear Bill O’Reilly rail against “secular progressives” — the moron actually thinks “secular” is a dirty word! — or listen to some TV preacher rant about how we need to be a “Christian nation” I can only shake my head. They make the same mistake every theocrat in history has made: assuming it’s their expression of faith that will be embraced by the state. In a country with hundreds, if not thousands, of Christian sects, chances are one version will triumph over others. Better to put them all on equal footing.
Too many people do not appreciate the truly American character of church-state separation. They assail the principle. They constantly try to sneak a little religion back into the public schools, post religious codes at courthouses or tax people to support “faith-based” initiatives. Some people have never reconciled themselves to the system our founders pioneered that works so well. All we can do is pledge to keep fighting.
On this Fourth of July, I’m thankful for our religious liberty — which includes the right not to believe – and the thing that keeps it alive: the separation of church and state. I hope you are, too. Remember that when the right wing attacks it, they are, as usual, trying to tear down what is best of America. It’s not a very patriotic thing to do.