Enough about the Founding Fathers
It seems to be everywhere these days. Recently we’ve had billboards with quotes of questionable accuracy from George Washington, and now some people want to drag them into the debate about the recent Kentucky ruling. If you haven’t heard, the crux of the original story is that Kentucky had a law that established some Homeland Security kind of things, it placed emphasis on “Almighty God” as the ultimate defense. A judge ruled that it was violating the establishment clause of the first amendment,
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
Now, it isn’t exactly clear what the point of this article is. Mr. Mathis doesn’t exactly say that we should advocate a state-sponsored religion, nor does he say that he thinks the ruling is wrong. But the undertone is there. He spends considerable time talking about the spirituality of Thomas Jefferson. We get anecdotes like this:
In fact, public Christian worship services were held at Congress, the Supreme Court’s chambers and the Treasury building. And Jefferson attended such Christian services on public property.
And this:
It is commonly accepted by historians that Thomas Jefferson was the most open-minded of the Founders. He was not a Christian but a Deist, yet he was a man of his times and religious. So, to find such religious actions and words speaks volumes against many current misunderstandings. The founding of America was more complex than normally thought.
And I really have no intention of arguing against any claims about their religious beliefs. I really don’t even care what they promoted while they were in office. Because they shouldn’t be put on a pedestal. Were they great men? Sure, they founded a new country with some great ideas, and that’s no small task. I have plenty of respect for them, but that does not mean that we should scrutinize every letter that they wrote for hidden meanings that promote this or that idea. It also doesn’t mean that we should look at the obvious things they did and extract any meaning there either. They knew enough to know that the government they established would need to be modified; that’s why we can make amendments to the constitution. Appealing to the founding fathers, even if the statement is true (that’s not even for sure a lot of the time) is a logical fallacy, and only really seeks to bully people into acceptance. It’s a more sneaky way of saying “If you don’t agree with this, you must hate America,” which is yet another form of improper argument.
I would really like it if this kind of bickering stopped all together, because even if you settle the dispute over what George Washington would have supported, it still has nothing to do with what we do today. Many founding fathers owned slaves, and we have plenty of laws on the books that are accepted today forbidding that. This is no longer their government; it’s ours. If something needs to be changed, it is our judgement that should be the deciding factor. We’ve got the brains to govern ourselves, so let’s use them.
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Hear, hear.
In fact, I would go further. Not only must all governments within the United States be secular, _all_ governments must be secular, if we are to protect human rights to worship.
Toward this end in the U.S., I regularly donate to Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, http://au.org — I encourage everyone to do the same. :)
The AU seems like a pretty good organization. It’s an uphill battle from the start, so every little bit helps, I’m sure. But it looks like they have the right stance. There’s no reason to fight religion, just keep it out of our government. Just because a religion is popular in a country doesn’t mean it should have any preferential treatment.
And I think people get confused about this idea. The point isn’t that religion won’t affect choices in government, exactly. If you hold a cherished belief that, for instance, abortion is wrong, it may be that the belief was influenced by your religion and you’re going to vote for someone who opposes abortion. That’s your vote and your reason, and I have no problem with that. The problem would be a president saying, “We’re banning abortion because Almighty God commands it.”
Also, the AU FAQ reminded me of an interesting issue too. People often ask where in the constitution it says that religion and government must be separate. There are some good examples and precedents, but really there doesn’t have to already be such a law already on the books to fight for it. Even if it wasn’t in there, it’s a good goal to work for, and makes absolute sense. That’s the whole point of being able to make new laws.
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