Separation...

A friend of mine forwarded an e-mail to me about a quote that President Obama made during his press conference on April 6, 2009, in Turkey. President Obama said, "I’ve said before that one of the great strengths of the United States is, although as I mentioned, we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values." 

The e-mail went on to list the preamble for every state’s constitution. Without reciting every preamble here, all of them mentioned the belief in a higher power. Here are some examples: Almighty Being, God, Supreme Ruler of the Universe, Providence of God, Divine Goodness, Creator, Divine Guidance, Him, Supreme Being, Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, Great Legislator of the Universe, Author of Existence, Supreme Ruler, and the most popular, Almighty God. 

After the list was concluded, the author of the e-mail had this to say, “After reviewing acknowledgments of God from all 50 state constitutions, one is faced with the prospect that maybe, the ACLU and the out-of-control federal courts are wrong! If you found this to be 'Food for thought' send [this] to as many as you think will be enlightened as I hope you were. (Please note that at no time is anyone told that they MUST worship God.) GOD BLESS AMERICA”

Okay, let’s just get right down to it: Separation of church and state. Now while I’m tempted to simply leave it there, there’s just a bit more to it. 

Prayer was taken out of our public schools, and the pledge of allegiance (which also evokes the name of God) has been either removed from the class room or made voluntary, depending on the state (Colorado Revised Statute 22-1-1-6, requires each public school to provide an opportunity, everyday, for willing students to recite the pledge). Having prayer or the pledge of allegiance take place in the classroom, thereby forcing those students who do not wish to partake to remove themselves from the rest of their classmates (potentially changing the way they are treated by their classmates and instructors), is an act of religious persecution. When in court, it used to be customary to say the words, “So help me God” at the end of reciting the oath of truth, right before taking a seat in the witness chair. This rule, which had been in place since 1789, was officially removed in 1997, via the US supreme Court. The removal of religious references from these public forums was done so because not everyone believes in the same religion, or in religion at all. The Establishment Clause was created to protect against this very sort of thing. However, I just grabbed a ten dollar bill from my wallet, and on the back of it, very prominent over the image of the White House, it clearly states, “In God We Trust.” The same phrase appears on all US currency. Granted, if Congress attempted to remove the aforementioned religious phrase from our money would spark an extremely intense political debate, but where is the separation?

The various state’s (to say nothing of our country’s) historical documents were written in a different era, back when we the people focussed a lot more on religion. This is not to say that the bulk of Americans are not currently religious people, but if any of the states constitutions were to be composed today, they would most certainly not contain a reference to a higher power. The very mention of such is exclusive to specific groups, minority or otherwise. A state’s constitution is intended to represent the rule of law for all its people, not just those who worship a higher power. Again, the fourteenth amendment would come into play, in that a state constitution is intended to be a document that is inclusive of all the people living in that state. 

The first amendment of the United States Constitution makes clear the following: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Thanks to the fourteenth amendment, this law also applies to all states. This means that the government cannot enact any law that lends itself toward a religious bias, of the people, by the people, or despite the people. 

President Obama’s statement, “...we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values” is true. The majority of the people of the United States believe in a higher power, roughly 85%, but there’s myriad religions that all these people subscribe to. Then there is the remaining 15% that do not believe in any religion at all. That number has increased from 8% in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey poll in 2008. A poll done in 2002 by the Association of Religion Data Archives reveals 51.6% of Americans believe that religion is losing it’s influence. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted a survey in 2008, and one of the many results concluded that, “More than one-quarter of American adults have left the faith of their childhood for another religion or no religion at all.” Their results also show that based on their 1986 and 2008 polls, “11% of 18-25 year olds gave their religious preference as ‘no religion/atheist/agnostic’ and 8% of Americans over 25 did the same. Moving forward two decades, 20% of 18-25 year olds had [no religious preference], as did 11% of those over 25.” 

It is my opinion, that our country’s religious belief structure is changing. We seem to be leaning more toward our collective development, as a society, and not so much toward religious dependance. I think that most Americans believe more in our freedoms and rights, than in their individual religious beliefs. The overriding goal being a better place for everyone to engage in the struggle to attain the American dream: The pursuit of life, liberty, happiness, and equality in all its forms. 

To break it down into a very simple generality, the religious debate was intended to be public, while the personal religious experience is supposed to be just that: personal.