“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting any free exercise therefore.” This establishment clause in the first amendment of the United States Constitution has been the basis for hundreds of past and current arguments worldwide. The concepts behind separation of church and state were touchy subjects before this great nation was even colonized.
Our parents, schools, and nation have taught us to idolize individuals like the Puritans who came to the New World looking for religious freedom, but, in actuality, set up a society that was more dependent on religion then their former homeland. This was especially true in the New England colonies where the basic society was structured on an ultimatum. Visitors could either follow their form of ecclesiastical law, or risk being socially ostracized or even executed.
Just recently Kenneth Howell, a professor at U. Illinois, did not have his contract renewed after he allegedly gave a “hate speech” towards homosexuality to select students in his Introduction to Catholicism and Modern Catholic Thought class. Those quotations around hate speech give insight to my opinion about the subject, that is not the point of making this reference.
Instances like this issue show that religious factions and the government are at war everyday in America. Our Founding Fathers knew this was going to be an issue for centuries to come and that is why they set up our Constitution the way they did. Statements such as “our creator” and “Nature’s God” appear several times in our Declaration of Independence, but they are left very ambiguous to leave interpretation to any god.
Critics of this historical data may argue that certain American traditions were established by our Founding Fathers, such as “In God We Trust” imprinted on our currency or “one nation under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance. But these critics are mistaken; “In God We Trust” was not added to our currencies until a religious rally happened with the close of the Civil War and President Lincoln’s death. “One Nation Under God” was not added to the Pledge of Allegiance until the communist scare of the 1950s. This phrase distinguished Americans from our “godless” communist rivals.
Every day we hear complaints from the far right and their media that America is departing from the original intentions of our Founding Fathers. In reality, our founding fathers lived during the Enlightenment Era in which religion and the Church were scrutinized and not trusted. The motto of the Enlightenment Era was reason over religion. In our current time, many people are now fighting for just the opposite: religion over reason or, at least, religion over the separation of church and state. I am a religious individual and I do believe that the Bible offers powerful insight into truth, but, like our Founding Fathers, I realize religion can blind a state from doing what is best for its people.