Reflecting on the past few weeks - November 19, anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address; November 21, date of signing the Mayflower Compact. The 26 remembers the first nationally proclaimed Thanksgiving Day. Seven days of celebrating our heritage in freedom. Each of these milestones includes a reference to God. But whose God?
Some would have us believe it was God as they define God. This thinking would frighten our Founding Fathers. This nation was created by people from many segments of planet Earth. They came to establish and reside in a free society that practiced the separation of church and state.
Today some organizations in the far right and the far left want citizens of this nation to return to a state that no longer tolerates people with different beliefs. Our Founding Fathers would be against these groups left or right. They were devout men. None were enemies of God. All were of the Enlightenment or Age of Reason.
Benjamin Franklin strongly affirmed God's existence; the freedom for individual choice; and the potential value of institutional religion as an enforcer of moral codes. But he rejected churches that focused exclusively on dogma and neglected moral reasoning. Asked his belief, he said, "Here is my creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the universe: that he governs the world by his providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we can render him is to do good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be fundamental principles of all sound religion, and I regard them as you do, in whatever sect I meet them."
Washington had the least to say about religion. As an baptized Anglican he kept his beliefs private and declared his religious tenets to few and simple. He studiously avoided referring to the person and ministry of Jesus. When some Presbyterian leaders complained of the lack of any Constitutional reference to "the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent," he calmly replied, "The path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction."
The congregationalist, John Adams joined the crusade for liberal Unitarianism that grew out of his own denomination. In France he had been exposed to the Enlightenment and was definite a free thinker. He hailed the sovereignty of God with deepest feelings. For him it was enough to be answerable for your own actions. He was not overly concerned with acts from the beliefs of others.
As a member of the Virginia legislature and US Congress, plus as Secretary of State and President, James Madison held long and hard for separation of church and state. In fact he argued vigorously against Patrick Henry's tax bill that would support "the Christian religion." Madison strongly advocated leaving all laws pertaining to religion to the only true qualified authority in this area: "the Supreme Lawgiver of the universe."
Thomas Jefferson the primary author of our documents that emphatically defend religious freedom was the strangest of all the five Founding Fathers. Instrumental in bringing about the First Amendment, he very much admired legislation that "had the courage to declare that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions." In 1803 he stated, "I am a real Christian ... sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others." Yet he rejected the divinity of Jesus (as he believed Jesus did). He felt the idea of the Trinity was "mere abracadabra." In 1819 he he declared, "I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know."
The Founding Fathers wanted a land where people were able to explore and define God in their own way. A place where the evidence of faith and not the law of the land will bring people to God. My God as I believe is my business and your God is your business. Can we not build a bridge to the future with a keystone of freedom AND tolerance? It is what built the first bridge of a freedom for so many pilgrims from so many lands.
Please allow us all the privilege of the basics of religious freedom established so long ago? Huh, could we?
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