By the time you read this, the 4th of July will have come and gone. If all goes as planned, Linda and I will have seen the fireworks from a hometown vantage point overlooking the muddy Maumee River in northwestern Ohio. We probably won't "ooh" and "ahh" or fall down as if shot by the booming cannon sounds of the fireworks as we did as little children, but I'm confident we will have enjoyed ourselves and celebrated our freedom just the same.
Freedom is the most precious heritage our Founding Fathers have left us. How often do you remember to give thanks for the freedom to assemble with whom and for whatever cause you desire? Or for a free press that can report facts for the benefit of the public even if it is not politically expedient for the party in power? Or for the freedom to worship the God of your own understanding and experience rather than the state or nationally approved version?
The issue of the "Separation of Church and State", as it is often called, is a controversial one. It is now; it always has been. It was the issue our Founding Fathers wrangled over the most. (Too bad we didn't have the official involvement of the Founding Mothers in the process. Dolly Madison and Abigail Adams had to come in via the back door by "advising" their husbands at home and by letters. And they did!) Today conservative Christians claim that the Founding Fathers were all Christian men who founded a "Christian Nation." The Secular Humanists contend that they were Deists, Infidels, or Enlightenment Philosophers who wanted God completely out of the picture. They are both wrong. In actuality, they were all of the above, and hence the struggle to define the role of religion in the new nation they were founding.
Of the most part, the majority felt that a religious populace was essential for peace, tranquility, and morality. But they were well aware of the history of dissent and violence in Europe and in the New England and Virginia colonies caused by having an established religion. The question was: How do we promote religion without being involved in religion as a government? The answer they worked out was inspired. It had never been tried before. It is not perfect, but it has done its job for over 200 years. The first amendment to the Constitution states: "Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." They decided it was best to promote religion by staying out of religion.
In my opinion, they were right. The proof is in the religious diversity of our country and the freedom we enjoy to worship God as we understand God to be. And to prevent anyone who would prevent us because, in their opinion, we aren't doing God right.
The Founding Fathers drew the proverbial "line in the sand" between government and religion, between "Church and State," and that is why it is an aberration instead of a commonplace when one religion or denomination gets in the way of another in America. The next time you hear about a Shia Moslem bombing a Sunni Moslem's Mosque (or vice versa), give thanks for the First Amendment. It has probably kept the Methodists and the Mormons from doing the same.
I conclude with a statement from Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and Birth of Religious Freedom in America
by Steven Waldman.
"The birth of religious freedom was not inevitable. The Founding Fathers contemplated the approach taken by their grandfathers for more than a century-and rejected it. Through a variety of battles-some local, some national, some born of enlightenment and some of parochialism-these men and women helped create a radical new three-part creed:
The Founding Faith, then, was not Christianity, and it was not Secularism. It was religious liberty-a revolutionary formula for promoting faith by leaving it alone."
- Religion is essential to the flourishing of a republic
- To thrive, religion needs less help, not more, from the state
- God gave all humans the right to full religious freedom
(From the Introduction, p. xvi)
See you in Church, APUMC! And God bless America!
Pastor Carl