Indiana's Lieutenant Governor is at it again: Micah Beckwith is making things up, claiming the Founders and Framers who set up a secular government were all about Christian Nationalism.
He's talking nonsense. These men represented a mix of beliefs -- Unitarian, Quaker, Congregationalist, Universalist, Deist, Methodist, Catholic, Judaism and others -- and they knew history. They had read of and in some cases observed the damage a State Church can cause.
And they were open to the good religious faith can create, too. You'll find them writing of the "public utility" of religion as a beacon of individual morality. They had no problem with individual legislators looking to their own beliefs for guidance -- but they were wary of any faith leading the government, and of any government running and requiring adherence to a church.
This is not a difficult concept. It's not at all hard to find in the historical record -- and even then, a few men wanted one religious sect or another upheld and enforced -- or suppressed. (John Jay was an ardent advocate of Christianity in government -- and bitterly opposed to allowing Catholics to hold office, vote or even immigrate, calling for "a wall of brass around the country for the exclusion of Catholics.") Their views did not prevail then, and should not prevail now.
Look to your faith to your heart's content. Express it in your words and deeds. But don't use the blunt instrument of the State to make everyone else do so -- or claim it, and it alone, should be enshrined in our government.
America's tradition of religious freedom and tolerance was a rare and precious thing when the country was new, and it still is.
Because the Founding Fathers had in their recent historical memory that flaming sword of some 200 years of religious warfare in the Old World....and wanted none of that here. And, unlike today, they respected and believed in the good will of their fellows and understood that consensus and compromise was not only essential and necssary, but the flesh and blood of a system of checks and balances....that would, hopefully, obstruct tyranny.
ReplyDeleteAnd leave us to respect our fellows and be tolerant of the differences.
As a Christian, the last thing I or any others of the faith should want is for the government to start promoting, supporting, and meddling in matters of faith. For one, eventually they will start picking doctrinal sides and inevitably suppress the one that isn't on board with the government line. It's one reason we have so many German expat communities around the word.
ReplyDeleteThen there's the whole thing of scoundrels and charlatans making professions of faith to gain power- again, Germany and the Pietist movement come to mind here... or the current admin.
I could go on.