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| Keep God out of the Constitution. |
by Rev. Andrew JJ Paton |
"Here's the problem: the constitutions of all 50 states contain a presumption on the part of the framers of the documents that God should be mentioned in and play a part in public affairs."
People like our Federal Courts and the A.C.L.U. are to be admired
for their willingness to undertake huge tasks. The matter of separation
of church and state is a good example. These folks are trying to preserve
our American heritage of freedom from religion.
Somehow they know that the founding fathers didn't want religion to meddle in the affairs of state. As a new citizen I have been interested in the fact that each American lives under at least 2 constitutions. While I'm sad that many don't know the contents of the U.S. constitution, I hope you'll pay attention to your state's constitution.
As a new American I asked why these documents existed. I was instructed that it is the highest law in the United States. You can see why that made me hurry to read it. Having done so I was greatly comforted.
You don't have to read very far before the document presents you with its reason for being. This is called the preamble. I trust you cherish the words:
" to - form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity."
The main point of a preamble is to establish, up front, what's important to those who hold to the contents of the document.
Now that is also where those who believe that the fathers of this nation didn't want religion to be mixed with state matters have their biggest headache.
It's going to be a long, hard road but with a can-do attitude and enough complacency on the part of citizens I think they could sanitize religion out of state charters.
Here's the problem: the constitutions of all 50 states contain a presumption on the part of the framers of the documents that God should be mentioned in and play a part in public affairs. Most states have allusion to God in the preambles.
In order to make the idea of a complete separation of church and state a tenet of our political life we have to see the day when the state constitutions are either ignored or revised.
Our state, New Jersey, has these words in the preamble:
"We, the people of the State of New Jersey, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations, do ordain and establish this Constitution."
Shocking, or what!?
In 1947 The New Jersey constitution was carefully updated at the convention held at Rutgers University. Only 60 years ago the leaders of our state felt so strongly about including God in public affairs that they wrote one of the most God-acknowledging preambles in the history of the USA.
The good thing about the Internet is that you can read the charters of all the states. Each one of them will have to be revised. Its just silly to have them worded the way they are and yet boldly proclaim that those who wrote them wanted no religious influence in the matters of state.
Modern America is a secular nation that must be ruled with laws that consider humanity the measure of all things.
The only other thing we could do is take a new look how our courts painted us into a corner by misrepresenting the wall between church and state idea. In the light of all these state constitutions there's the strong possibility that this was supposed to be a country -
not free of religion, but rather free for religion.
In other words no particular church is to be allowed to dominate our politics. There are many of us who would want it no other way.
The price for doing it this way is to return to making God the measure of how life should be lived. That implies prayers to seek guidance upon our laws. Most radical of all, it reintroduces the idea that we are not free to live just as we please.