Understanding the Constitution #11: It Left Religion Out – by Design
“America was born a Christian nation.” - Woodrow Wilson
A year before being elected president, New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson said this in his address “The Bible and Progress.” His conclusion is shared - and opposed - by many, especially in recent years. Both sides invoke American history in their defense. The framers of the Constitution, however, were not conflicted. They supported religion but left it out of the Constitution ratified in 1788 - on purpose.
“God” is not mentioned in the Constitution. The sole reference to religion appears in Article VI: “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” The framers, familiar with the use of “Test Acts” in England which barred those not belonging to the Church of England from holding public office, wanted to prevent such a practice.
Leaving religion out of the Constitution was viewed as essential for ratification. Six states had established religions; others had disestablished religion. America had a large number of religious sects. All believed religious freedom was best found in a secular national government that would not take sectarian sides. Indeed, even the 1791 First Amendment’s ban on “establishment of religion” was a prohibition on the federal government, not the states, who feared the national government’s interference. When James Madison proposed what became the First Amendment, he wanted its freedom of religion clause applied to the states, but the Senate refused.
Behind the absence of “God” in the Constitution was the Enlightenment belief in freedom of conscience. The framers knew their history – governments, including American colonial ones, allied with churches frequently persecuted people. “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries,” James Madison wrote in 1803.
America had always drawn people wanting religious freedom. Madison believed religion would actually prosper if separated from government: “religion & Govt will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together,” he wrote to Edward Livingston in 1822. As Jill Lepore notes in her history of the United States (These Truths), “[I]n 1775 there had been 1,800 ministers in the United States; by 1845, there were more than 40,000 – very much the flowering of religious expression that Madison had predicted.”
Early American presidents also found separation of church and state useful in foreign affairs. When John Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli in 1797, gaining the release of American prisoners, he reassured their Arab captors that he would not launch a holy war against Islam: “the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,” he wrote.
It would be wrong, however, to conclude the founders of the United States were antithetical to religion. The Declaration of Independence invoked “Nature’s God,” the “Creator,” “the supreme judge of the world,” and “divine providence.” Religion was viewed as an important support for republican government because it could foster moral behavior. As John Adams wrote to his cousin, Zabdiel Adams, in 1776: “[S]statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which freedom can securely stand.” George Washington, in his 1796 Farewell Address, reminded Americans that “religion and morality are the indispensable supports” for human happiness.
All fifty state constitutions mention God or the divine. Even with ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868, which applied the First Amendment’s strictures on government to the states, religion is still a vital part of American life. Yet controversy abounds over what is permissible. Almost all Supreme Court cases based on either the “establishment” or “free exercise” clauses of the First Amendment have been decided since the middle of the twentieth century. Those two clauses – the first preventing government from direct support of a religion and the second preventing government from interfering with individuals’ rights to religious practice – are in tension and will remain so. That is the nature of a Constitution designed to balance competing societal interests.
The Constitution is not anti-God. It just keeps government out of sectarian affairs – and cautions against sectarian demands on government. When religious adherents demand governmental action because “God” wants it, they exercise their free speech rights. But when they seek control of government at the expense of the rights of others, they threaten the separation of church and state the framers intended. Religious intolerance and the desire of some religious leaders to control political parties are dangerous. Religion can play its part in republican government, but its advocates should honor the tenets of their own religious faith essential for liberty: empathy, humility, and love of others. There have been no religious wars in the United States. Religious discrimination and persecution can be addressed through the law. The framers of the Constitution gave us that gift.
Photo Credit: Aaron Burden-unsplash.com
