Chase Sorenson
4th
2010
Social Issue
While reading “Surround Yourself With Greatness” (by Chad Lewis) many
issues came to my mind about what I could do my presentation on. It could be about
friendship, love, or I could have even used the title of the book for my issue (would have
been a stretch, but could be done). Taking all that in to account I still decided to not pick
any of those issue’s. In essence, I went with Church and State issues but I mainly have
chosen to focus on the role of God in America, from the time our country was founded
until today. I chose this issue not only because my book talk a lot about faith and God,
but also because this issue hits very close to home. I think that too many Americans are
loosing a faith in a higher power and in some cases are even trying to push him out of our
public arena all together. But that’s not really what this paper is about. In the following
pages I will discuss everything I have found while doing research for this paper.
The first thing I wanted to look into was one of the first ever written American
documents, The Declaration of Independence. I found it interesting to see that it mentions
“God” or “Creator” twice in the first couple of paragraphs, “When, in the course of
human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which
have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
(Jefferson 1776 The Declaration Of Independence). This part of this very important
document proves in it’s own way that the founders wanted to establish a country that has
a solid belief in a higher power. They not only wrote this in to the constitution, but they
also wrote it into the first amendment as well, “Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (1st
Amendment Bill of Rights.)
Even with all of this reverence to a “higher power” some still say that we, as a
whole, are not Christian. Is that true, are they right? There will never be a clear answer it
seems, but here is what the founders said about it. George Washington said, “Of all the
dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are
indispensable supports… And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality
can be maintained without religion… Reason and experience both forbid us to expect
that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle. It is
substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government”.
(George Washington, The 5000 Year Leap W. Cleon Skousen.)
John Jay said “ Only
one adequate has ever appeared in the world, and that is the Christian dispensation”
(John Jay, Original Intent David Barton). Seeing and reading these quotes makes one
wonder how there can even be those thoughts in America. When leaders such as these
have said what they said about it. And if that’s not enough here is what Benjamin
Franklin said about it “History will also afford frequent opportunities of showing the
necessity of a public religion...and the excellency of the Christian religion above all
others, ancient or modern. (Benjamin Franklin, Original Intent David Barton). The
proof is right there, our founders intended our country to be a Christian country. What
makes it even more genius is that they felt the country should be of a Christian mindset,
yet provided a way for all to have religious equality no matter what religion they may be.
W. Cleon Skousen said this about equality of all religions concerning our founders. “ One
of the most remarkable undertakings of the American Founders was to do something
no other nation had ever successfully achieved- the task of providing legal equality for
all religions, both Christian and non- Christian”. (The 5000 Year Leap W. Cleon
Skousen). This shows how incredible it really was, that they were able to establish a new
nation based on Christian principles’, but still give all other faiths equality.
The next avenue I looked into was the so-called “Separation of Church and State”
and the roll it is now playing in modern day America. It seems that more and more people
are suing over the pledge being recited in class, a nativity scene at a state capital or even
the 10 Commandments being in view at a state courthouse. It makes one wonder, why?
After everything the great men that founded our great country felt about religion and its
role in this new nation, why would anyone want to fight it? The answer to that question is
a tricky one in fact, there is no one answer either way. It could be because more and more
prominent people are atheist and claim that God played no role in founding this great
country. Ayn Rand (best known for her book Atlas Shrugged and her philosophy called
objectivism) had this to say in an interview with Playboy in March of 1964. “Qua
religion, no—in the sense of blind belief, belief unsupported by, or contrary to, the
facts of reality and the conclusions of reason. Faith, as such, is extremely detrimental
to human life: it is the negation of reason. But you must remember that religion is an
early form of philosophy, that the first attempts to explain the universe, to give a
coherent frame of reference to man’s life and a code of moral values, were made by
religion, before men graduated or developed enough to have philosophy. And, as
philosophies, some religions have very valuable moral points. They may have a good
influence or proper principles to inculcate, but in a very contradictory context and, on
a very—how should I say it?—dangerous or malevolent base: on the ground of faith.
Christ, in terms of the Christian philosophy, is the human ideal. He personifies that
which men should strive to emulate. Yet, according to the Christian mythology, he died
on the cross not for his own sins but for the sins of the non-ideal people. In other
words, a man of perfect virtue was sacrificed for men who are vicious and who are
expected or supposed to accept that sacrifice. If I were a Christian, nothing could make
me more indignant than that: the notion of sacrificing the ideal to the non-ideal, or
virtue to vice. And it is in the name of that symbol that men are asked to sacrifice
themselves for their inferiors. That is precisely how the symbolism is used. (Playboy
Interview with Ayn Rand March 1964). One could read this and say that this has nothing
to do with God and his role in America, but I would argue otherwise. In fact one could
argue it has everything to do with it, as I will. The more this kind of thinking spreads the
more people might believe it (which is fine because here in America everyone has that
right). But that does not mean it is not a detriment to our society as a whole. Lucky for us,
Americans as a whole still believe in God and believe that the nations founders founded a
Christian nation. In fact the September 11th issue of the USA Today Polls said this “Most
Americans believe that the nation’s founders wrote Christianity into the Constitution,
and people are less likely to say freedom to worship covers religious groups they
consider extreme, a poll out today finds. The survey measuring attitudes toward
freedom of religion, speech and the press found the 55 percent believe erroneously that
the constitution establishes a Christian nation. In the survey, which is conducted
annually by the First Amendment Center, a non-partisan educational group, three out
of four people who identify themselves as evangelical or Republican believe the
Constitution establishes a Christian nation. About half of Democrats and independents
do”. (Poll: Founders Intended Christian Nation. “ USA Today Sept 11th 2007) The only
thing I find surprising about this is how it is not higher than it is. When it should be like
90 percent.
The next topic I found to be interesting was the Supreme Court Cases and Rulings
on Religion. Over the last hundred years or so there have been many landmark and
historic cases regarding this very issue. They have been on everything from praying in
class, to people complaining about the 10 Commandments being posted. Here are just a
few examples. The first is McCollum V. Board Of Education Dist. 71 (1948) “1940,
members of the Jewish, Roman Catholic, and some Protestant faiths formed a
voluntary association called the Champaign (Illinois) Council on Religious Education.
Cooperating with the Champaign Board of Education, the Council offered voluntary
classes in religious instruction to public school pupils. The courses were conducted in
the regular classrooms of the school building. Students who did not attend the religious
instruction were required to go to some other place in the building to pursue secular
studies”. The question was simple, did the use of the public school system for religious
classes violate the first amendment? The court found that “Yes. The Court held that the
use of tax-supported property for religious instruction and the close cooperation
between the school authorities and the religious council violated the Establishment
clause. Because pupils were required to attend school and were released in part from
this legal duty if they attended the religious classes, the Court found that the
Champaign system was "beyond question a utilization of the tax-established and taxsupported public school system to aid religious groups and to spread the faith."
(McCollum V. Board Of Education Dist. 71 oyez.org/cases/1940-1949/1947/1947_90).
This was a very strong ruling because up until this time this practice would go on in
school all around the country. The next example I chose to use was Stone V. Graham
(1980) “Sydell Stone and a number of other parents challenged a Kentucky state law
that required the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments in each public school
classroom. They filed a claim against James Graham, the superintendent of public
schools in Kentucky”. The question posing the court in this case was once again a fairly
simple one. Did the Kentucky statute violate the Establishment Clause of the First
Amendment? (In a 5-to-4 per curiam decision, the Court ruled that the Kentucky law
violated the first part of the test established in Lemon v. Kurtzman, and thus violated
the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. The Court found that the requirement
that the Ten Commandments be posted "had no secular legislative purpose" and was
"plainly religious in nature." The Court noted that the Commandments did not confine
themselves to arguably secular matters (such as murder, stealing, etc.), but rather
concerned matters such as the worship of God and the observance of the Sabbath
Day”. (Stone V. Graham oyez.org/cases/1980-1989/1980/1980.) This ruling was
particularly surprising (as they all were) considering the founder’s view on religion.
So what I did find in researching for this paper is that this is an issue that might
always be facing our country. It is not a matter of it being right or wrong, but more a
matter of how we got to be this way as a country and drift so far away from the original
intent of our founders. Now all we can do is wait and see where we go from here, time
will only tell. As for me, I hope and pray we return to the original Christian principles our
nation was founded on.
Bibliography
Barton, David; Original Intent, (2008)
Jefferson, Thomas; The Declaration Of Independence
(1776)
Skousen, W. Cleon; The Five Thousand Year Leap, (1981)
The Oyez Project : Stone V. Graham (1980)
(www.oyez.org)
The Oyez Project: McCollum V.
Board Of Edu. Dist 71 (1948) (www.oyez.org)
“Playboy’s Interview with Ayn Rand,” March 1964.
(aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/religion.html)