America’s First Civil Right

The problem today is not Christianity or secular humanism – it is the increasing force of government power in situations of religious expression. When the Nazi government replaced pictures of Jesus Christ in public school classrooms with those of Hitler, this was raw government power attempting to marginalize the influence of the church. Public school physical fitness and athletic games on Sundays was another way to counter the church’s influence on the people by removing families from Sunday morning church services. What was at first voluntary became mandatory and parents who objected were punished as enemies of the state.

Today’s government intrusions on religious liberty end up in courtrooms where citizens are sued for such offenses as refusing to take down the words of the Ten Commandments in a public courthouse or public school, and opening town meetings with an invocation to God or Jesus. The First Amendment clearly protects us from such government intrusion on matters of religion as it states that the government “cannot prohibit the free exercise thereof.” The fact that the Ten Commandments are inscribed on the wall of the U.S. Supreme Court should concern judges who forbid the same in their jurisdictions.

To understand the Establishment Clause requires a familiarity with American history: When Virginia was an English colony; the Church of England (Anglican church) was the only officially recognized church in the colony. That designation gave the government a legal right to tax residents for the salary of the rector and upkeep of the church building as well as to punish with fines those who were deemed to have been excessively absent from church services. Church leaders of all denominations had to be licensed by the Church of England; many independent and Baptist preachers were generally denied licensure. Even though many Founding Fathers, such as George Washington, were devout and active Anglican church leaders, they felt that involuntary church membership was a burden that must be eliminated in the new republic, plus the fact that many Presbyterians, Catholics, Baptists, Puritans and Quakers had come to the colonies to be free of the rule of the Established churches in Europe.

The term “separation of church and state” was used by Thomas Jefferson to promise a Baptist church in Rhode Island that the government would never interfere with religious matters, and that churches had the right to make their voices heard on political issues such as has been the case over the years concerning abolition, Prohibition, Civil Rights, pacifism, and environmentalism.

Finally, America is a Judeo-Christian nation simply because the majority of Americans have always been Christians and Jews.  Many of our great colleges, universities, and hospitals were founded by churches. Our national hymns and anthems invoke the blessing of the Judeo-Christian God, while church hymns honor our God and our country. In the national hymn, “My County ‘Tis of Thee,” the king of our country is God.  Separation of church & state means that Jefferson’s promise that the state has no say over matters of religious expression and conscience must be honored.   Freedom of religion is our first civil right.

– Gail T. Lambert

Roanoke

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