There has been so much talk in the media lately about religion’s place in our country’s political arena. Huge debates about the continuing use of the words “under God” in our pledge of allegiance, whether or not we should be overly concerned about our leaders religious beliefs or lack there of, etc...
And it got me thinking, what role does religion play in our political system? The founding fathers were Christian men. They built this country’s constitution and established its laws on Judeo-Christian beliefs.
I grew up in the Presbyterian faith. As a kid I was submerged in it. I went to Sunday school, youth groups, camps, retreats, served on the statewide youth subcommittee and worked summers during my college years as a counselor at those same camps and retreats. Some of the most beautiful summers of my life were spent in the mountains of West Virginia at Bluestone or at Montreat in North Carolina. I led worship services just as often as I MC’d talent shows and Cabin Skit Nights. But these days, I am hardly a strict practicing Christian. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to church, but the values I learned in those early years have always stayed with me.
I have many friends who feel the same way I feel. One of my oldest and dearest friends (with whom I used to get into a considerable amount of trouble for talking to during church service) and now a self described atheist, has said that while she no longer believes in Christianity, she still holds the values that her Christian upbringing instilled. These values are described in the Declaration of Independence as “certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Our founding fathers were trying to hammer out a reasonable way of life for themselves free from the dysfunctional and secular traditions of Old Europe.
Ronald R. Cherry writes that our founding fathers “separated Church from state, but they wisely didn’t separate God from state.” Churches can oppress you, values cannot. They believed that God was the source of our human rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That belief caused biblical morality to be infused into our laws and ingrained into our national character. This morality is so much a part of our American lives that we rarely give it a passing thought. Our sense of right and wrong, our belief in truth and honesty, our understanding of justice and freedom are all based on the things our forefathers valued and included in the documents that birthed our nation. And these things are part of the American value system regardless of most religions practiced in the modern United States. It is this morality and national character that have kept us safe from tyranny and totalitarian rule. By keeping Judeo-Christian values in the state, as opposed to the church itself, and using those values as a basis for our laws, the founders insured that they would become a part of the fabric of this country, the national character we think of as American Exceptionalism.
There is a direct connection between Liberty and God in the Judeo-Christian sense. In America, the equality is under God and the Law. Since it is the belief that God is the giver of Liberty and our rights to life and happiness, all men who stand equal under his gifts are equal unto each other and must govern each other as such. In socialist and communist societies, however, equality is based on economic equality. Economic equality is not the same as Liberty. It is a redistribution of wealth and resources in which everyone gets an equal share.
Let’s really think about this for a moment.
There can be no God in a socialist society. Socialism suppresses any freedom for a society to work and and pursue anything... especially happiness. Socialism is the opposite of happiness. It demands nothing of it’s citizens. There is no incentive to work hard for anything. Socialism robs the people of pride, hope and desire. It stifles human creativity. Why work hard for anything when it’s all taken by the state? And adversely, why work at all when the state provides? It stagnates it’s people and promotes ingratitude. Look around at the disenfranchised generations of welfare kids who become welfare adults, blaming the state for their situations even while they take government assistance in the form of welfare checks and food stamps.
For a free citizenry, it’s important to remember that your rights come from God (whoever you believe that divine power to be) and not the government. The Founders knew that. They were smart and insightful enough to understand that a people who believe their rights come from God, not a monarchy or a dictatorship, can learn to rule themselves and not be subservient to one man or group of men. Because in a monarchy or dictatorship, those rights given can also be taken away. Not so with a gift from God. And so in doing this the founders gave future generations of Americans the ability to stand against tyranny, by understanding that the source of our rights comes not from other men.
As our country grows more and more multi-ethnic, we need to keep a clear idea of what these values are and what they represent. Please note that multi-ethnic is not the same as multi-cultural. In a multi-ethnic society, people from different backgrounds and cultural heritages live together under a common social belief system and rule of law. In a multi-cultural society, people are encouraged to embrace their culture to the point of separatism. If groups of people in our country are encouraged to keep themselves separate from the rest of American society, they can never truly learn to embrace and appreciate our value system, therefore, they can never truly assimilate to our laws and way of life, and thus dilute the strength of our national character. As Americans, we must strive to ensure that the people of our nation are taught to appreciate our value system and respect the law. It is the very thing that makes the United States of America unique. It is what makes us AMERICAN.
Ronald Reagan once said, “Americans don’t care what your origins are, they care what your destination is.” Well said.
The US is a melting pot of people and cultures that span the globe. A melting pot, not separate cultures on separate plates. In this country we are equal under the law and under the idea that our rights are divine. This is the GOD in our country. This is the GOD in our pledge, on our money and woven throughout our legal and political system. Without this value system, this biblical morality, we are susceptible to those who would have us lose our national identity, our American Exceptionalism, and insert socialism or totalitarianism in it’s place. We must make sure to preserve our Judeo-Christian history, and to teach it to all our citizens, whether they inherit their nationality or adopt it. Without God, our nation falters.
We must keep God in our pledge, our judicial system and our national identity... And more importantly, we must teach our citizens why... our future depends on it.
