Comments on WHY GOD IS IN THE DECLARATION BUT NOT THE CONSTITUTION

A recent discussion with historian John Ragosta at the

Journal of the American Revolution

  JOHN RAGOSTA

               JULY 2, 2016 AT 7:53 AM

Good piece. Many sources note that the state constitutions included various religious tests when the U.S. Constitution was adopted, but far fewer note that the states uniformly moved in the direction of a clear separation of church and state. This was not to create an empty, godless public square, but to get government out of religion and religion out of government. See Religious Freedom: Jefferson’s Legacy, America’s Creed.

REPLY

• TOM VAN DYKE

  JULY 2, 2016 AT 1:54 PM

  but far fewer note that the states uniformly moved in the direction of a clear separation of church and state. This was not to create an empty, godless public square, but to get government out of religion and religion out of government

  But what even fewer note is that the Constitution does not require such strict separation! Contrary to prevailing opinion and current judicial interventions, it was up to the individual states to decide how more or less religious they would be.

  That is the point of reminding folks that religion was left up to the states, something even Jefferson acknowledged.

  “This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment, or free exercise, of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the U. S. Certainly no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the general government. It must then rest with the states, as far as it can be in any human authority.”
  –Letter to Rev. Samuel Miller, 1808

  And FTR, Jefferson’s context of “church and state” was sectarianism, that the ruling Congregationalists might mess with Danbury, Connecticut’s Baptists. A long way from the current crisis.

  REPLY
  • JOHN RAGOSTA

    JULY 2, 2016 AT 1:56 PM

    True, and then there was a little Civil War…. (Also addressed in my most recent book.)

    REPLY
    • TOM VAN DYKE

      JULY 2, 2016 AT 2:03 PM

      The 14th Amendment–and its current controversial interpretations re religion*–are a completely separate subject from the Founding and the 1st Amendment. Further, they are legal and judicial, not germane to the political philosophy of the Founding [or the 14th Amendment for that matter, since its ratifiers never expected courts would apply it to religion!].

      The 14th [and the Civil War] are completely outside the scope of this discussion of God in the Declaration and Constitution.

      Respectfully submitted.

      ___________________

      *The Mythical “Wall of Separation”: How a Misused Metaphor Changed Church–State Law, Policy, and Discourse