Bravado Abounded

       Wise and courageous men were willing to potentially forfeit their fortunes and/or pay with their lives to enable the establishment of a nation and government like no other.

        In breaking away from England they asserted in the Declaration of Independence their belief that all persons are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”

        Therein they appealed “to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions” with “a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence.” 

        Years lapsed and there came a day when they set about to codify their concept of government in the Constitution. It was intended to guide our nation for all time. It was to be the document by which all laws through the ages should be evaluated.

        One area of concern was the desire to avoid establishing a state church like many nations in Europe. Some colonies had already named a specific denomination as its official church.

        In Massachusetts a Baptist pastor, Isaac Backus, contended with John Adams, who was to become our second president for freedom from denominational control. As a Baptist he was concerned that the Presbyterian denomination would become the official state church. Doing away with official churches seemed so unrealistic that Adams said, “You might as well expect a change in the solar system as to expect us to give up our established churches.”

        Later Thomas Jefferson, considered by some an iconoclast among early presidents in matters of religion, wrote to a body of Baptists intended to insure the government could not give preference to one denomination wrote of “A wall of separation.” Though Jefferson wasn’t involved in the writing of the First Amendment he understood it as intended by those who composed it when they stated, “Congress shall make no laws regarding the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It was a prohibition against the government establishing any one denomination as the official church of the state. The restriction was on the government, not churches.

        Today the application of the amendment is not in keeping with the intent of those who wrote our Constitution and the Amendments. As an indication of what that congress meant look at the agenda items passed by the body. In their first session they appointed a chaplain of the congress and chaplains for the armed forces. It resolved that the inauguration of George Washington should culminate with a worship service at St. Paul’s Chapel, an Anglican Church. On that same day they called on the President to proclaim a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer.”

        As confirmation of what Jefferson meant by the wall of separation consider that during his term as president the primary textbooks in public schools were the Bible and Watts Hymnal. He attended the first church service held in the House of Representatives on January 3, 1802, and continued to do so for seven years. The Marine Corps Band played, Sunday School was held in the Supreme Court Building and Treasury Building.

        Constitutional Law was for years the basis of all law in America. Former Justice Felix Frankfurter said, “What governs is the Constitution, and not what we have written about it.” In recent years instead of interpreting and making laws in accordance with the intent of those who wrote the Constitution and Amendments some jurists base interpretations on public opinion, present trends, and even laws of other nations with little or no regard to the intended meaning of the document designed to govern us.

        As a consequence there has been much change in our culture. By using the current means of establishing laws any change is possible.