Many of our founders were deists who embraced philosophy of reason

To the editor,

New Hampshire Representative Harry Accornero recently wrote that there “is no such thing” as “Separation of Church and State” in the United States Constitution. I beg to differ. While Mr. Accornero is absolutely correct that the words “separation of church and state” do not appear in the U.S. or New Hampshire Constitutions, the concept itself is deeply imbedded in both documents and this is clear in the rights they list regarding religion. In addition, the term WAS used by founder Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that “In America there should be a wall of separation between church and state."

The constitutional founders did not establish a “Christian” or a “Judeo-Christian” nation. Naturally, they wanted people to be good, upright citizens and felt that religion could play a role in developing this kind of character, but this is not a Christian monopoly. Our founders believed that religion could be a good thing but that it should thrive separately from government.

I agree with our founders. If your religion makes you a better citizen, neighbor, and human being, then your religion is a positive thing. If, on the other hand, your religion leads you to fly a plane into a building, picket a soldier’s funeral, plant a bomb, or cover up sexual abuse, then it is not positive.

Certainly, our founders had contemporary models had they wanted to mix religion and government. Many European countries, including Great Britain, had “established” churches. Some still do. Some American colonies did have official religions and so did some states after independence from Great Britain until the federal Constitution and the Bill of Rights went into effect.

Our constitutional founders believed that religion could improve society but that for religion and government to reach their highest potential, they needed to be separated. These men envisioned a “free market” of ideas — religious and secular — where the “best” ideas would predominate and expand.

Many historical revisionists would like to portray our founders as evangelical Christians who preferred a Biblical code of law for the United States. Of course this was true of many New England Puritan Calvinists but, by the time of the American Revolution, America was religiously diverse and tolerant.

No doubt, many of our founders, like most other Americans in the Eighteenth Century, were at least nominally “Christian.” But many, like Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, were deists who had embraced the philosophy of “reason” characteristic of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution of the 17th and 18th Centuries. Even devout Christians were influenced by Enlightenment thought.

Deists believed that God was a rational being who was like a “watchmaker” who had made the universe and then allowed it to function according to natural laws. Human beings made their own destinies. God did not approve or disapprove of governments but gave us common sense to govern ourselves.

Deists, who believed in natural law, generally disavowed divine miracles. While Jefferson considered Jesus to be a good man and moral teacher, he did not believe in his divinity. According to most Christian denominations, his denial of Christ’s deity would mean that he was not a Christian.

Ben Franklin believed in God but, in his last years, he expressed doubts about the divinity of Jesus. However, with typical Franklin humor he said that he was not going to worry about it since he would find out the truth in a couple of years anyway. Franklin, like other founders, saw religion as a positive social force and donated to every church in Philadelphia. Clergy from virtually every congregation in Philadelphia, Jewish and Christian, marched in Franklin’s funeral procession.

The founders wrote three important rights concerning religion into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The first is contained in the “body” of the Constitution, before the Bill of Rights was added. Here, the Constitution provides that there can be no “religious test” for holding public office. In other words, no one can be made to subscribe to any belief (or lack thereof) in order to hold a public office provided he or she has been duly elected or appointed.

The other two religious rights in the Constitution are guaranteed in its First Amendment. The Amendment provides that government “shall make no law concerning an establishment of religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In other words, government cannot establish a state religion, fund or support religion, regulate religion, or treat one religion differently than another.

Simultaneously, the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause provides for the broadest degree of religious freedom without government interference. That is why many people came to America to escape religious bigotry. As is the case with any right, there are reasonable limits to the Free Exercise Clause. You cannot, for example, perform human sacrifice even it that is a tenet of your faith!

American separation of church and state has been beneficial to both government and religion. Religion does not unduly interfere with the functions of government (although people of faith are free to express their opinions on political, social, and other issues). Religious bodies receive tax exemptions and are left alone by the authorities unless they are involved in criminal misconduct.

Naturally, there are those who abuse this freedom just as there are those that abuse other constitutional rights. Religious liberty in America has permitted numerous toxic “cults” and religious frauds to operate in our country that would not be tolerated in a number of other (even democratic) countries (Rev. Harold Camping and his prediction of the rapture on May 21 comes to mind). On the other hand, such liberty of faith has led to the U.S. becoming perhaps the most religiously and spiritually diverse and tolerant nation in the world.

E. Scott Cracraft

Gilford