5000 Year Leap (41 page)

The Founders knew their classics. They also knew their history — Biblical, Greek, Roman, European, and American. From all of these valuable sources they sorted out what they considered to be the best and most enduring for the prosperity and peace of a free people under a republican system of self-government.

The Secret to America’s Strength
By W. Cleon Skousen
An address to law school students, 1981

The Role of Religion in the Founding Fathers’ Constitutional Formula

Americans of the Twentieth Century often fail to realize the supreme importance which the Founding Fathers originally attached to the role of religion in the structure of the unique civilization which they hoped would emerge as the first free people in modern times. Many Americans also fail to realize that the Founders felt the role of religion would be as important in our own day as it was in theirs.

In 1787, the very year the Constitution was written and approved by Congress, that same body of Congress passed the famous Northwest Ordinance. In it they outlawed slavery in the Northwest territory, they enunciated the basic rights of citizens in language similar to that which was later incorporated in the Bill of Rights, and they emphasized the essential need to teach religion and morality in the schools. Here is the way they said it:

“Article 3: Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” (Basic American Documents, Littlefield, Adams & Co., Ames, Iowa, p. 66)

Notice that formal education was to include among its responsibilities the teaching of three important subjects:

1. Religion, which might be defined as a “fundamental system of beliefs concerning man’s origin and relationship to the cosmic universe as well as his relationship with his fellow men.”

2. Morality, which may be described as “a standard of behavior distinguishing right from wrong.”

3. Knowledge, which is “an intellectual awareness and understanding of established facts relating to any field of human experience or inquiry, i.e., history, geography, science, etc.”

We also notice that “religion and morality” were not required by the Founders as merely an intellectual exercise, but they positively declared their conviction that these were essential ingredients needed for “good government and the happiness of mankind.”

Washington Describes the Founders’ Position

The position set forth in the Northwest Ordinance was reemphasized by President George Washington in his Farewell Address:

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion ... reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle.

“It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.” (Basic American Documents, pp. 108-109)

The Teaching of Religion in Schools Restricted to Universal Fundamentals

Having established that “religion” is the foundation of morality and both are essential to “good government and the happiness of mankind,” the Founders then set about to exclude the creeds and biases or dissensions of individual denominations so as to make the teaching of religion a unifying cultural adhesive rather than a divisive apparatus. Jefferson wrote a bill for the “Establishing of Elementary Schools” in Virginia and made this point clear by stating:

“No religious reading, instruction or exercise, shall be prescribed or practiced inconsistent with the tenets of any religious sect or denomination.” (J. Randolph, editor, Early History of the University of Virginia, 1856, pp. 96-97)

Obviously, under such restrictions the only religious tenets to be taught in public schools would have to be those which were universally accepted by all faiths and completely fundamental in their premises.

Franklin Describes the Five Fundamentals of “All Sound Religions”

Several of the Founders have left us with a description of their basic religious beliefs, and Benjamin Franklin summarized those which he felt were the “fundamental points in all sound religion.” Here is the way he said it:

“Here is my creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing 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 the fundamental points in all sound religion....” (Letter to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale University, Sparks, editor, Works of Benjamin Franklin, 1840, Vol. 10, pp. 423-424)

The “Fundamental Points” to be Taught in the Schools

The five points of fundamental religious belief which are to be found in all of the principal religions of the world are those expressed or implied in Franklin’s statement:

1. Recognition and worship of a Creator who made all things.

2. That the Creator has revealed a moral code of behavior for happy living which distinguishes right from wrong.

3. That the Creator holds mankind responsible for the way they treat each other.

4. That all mankind live beyond this life.

5. That in the next life mankind are judged for their conduct in this one.

All five of these tenets run through practically all of the Founders’ writings. These are the beliefs which the Founders sometimes referred to as the “religion of America,” and they felt these fundamentals were so important in providing “good government and the happiness of mankind” that they wanted them taught in the public schools along with morality and knowledge.

Statements of the Founders Concerning these Principles

Samuel Adams said these basic beliefs which constitute “the religion of America is the religion of all mankind.” (W.V. Wells, The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, Vol. 3, p. 23) In other words, these fundamental beliefs belong to all world faiths and could therefore be taught without being offensive to any “sect or denomination” as indicated in the Virginia bill establishing elementary schools.

John Adams called these tenets the “general principles” on which the American civilization had been founded. (Letter to Jefferson cited in Burge, editor, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 13, p. 293)

Thomas Jefferson called these basic beliefs the principles “in which God has united us all.” (Ibid., Vol. 14, p. 198)

From these statements it is obvious how significantly the Founders looked upon the fundamental precepts of religion and morality as the cornerstones of a free government. This gives additional importance to the warning of Washington when he said: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.... Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?” (Littlefield, Basic American Documents, pp. 108-109)

Washington issued this solemn warning because in France, shortly before Washington wrote his Farewell Address (1796), the promoters of atheism and amorality had seized control and turned the French Revolution into a shocking blood-bath of wild excesses and violence. Washington never wanted anything like that to happen in the United States. Therefore he had said: “In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness [religion and morality].” (Ibid.)

Alexis de Tocqueville Discovers the Importance of Religion in America

When Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States in 1831 he became so impressed with what he saw that he went home and wrote one of the most definitive studies on the American culture and Constitutional system that had been published up to that time. His book was called Democracy in America. Concerning religion in America, de Tocqueville said:

“On my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things.” (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. 1, p. 319)

He described the situation as follows:

“Religion in America takes no direct part in the government of society, but it must be regarded as the first of their political institutions.... I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion — for who can search the human heart? — but I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society.” (Ibid., p. 316)

European Philosophers Turned Out To Be Wrong

In Europe it had been popular to teach that religion and liberty were inimical to each other. De Tocqueville saw the very opposite happening in America. He wrote:

“The philosophers of the eighteenth century explained in a very simple manner the gradual decay of religious faith. Religious zeal, said they, must necessarily fail the more generally liberty is established and knowledge diffused. Unfortunately the facts by no means accord with their theory. There are certain populations in Europe whose unbelief is only equaled by their ignorance and debasement; while in America, one of the freest and most enlightened nations in the world, the people fulfill with fervor all the outward duties of religion.” (Ibid., p. 319)

A New Kind of Christianity Emerges in America

De Tocqueville points out that “in France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united.” (Ibid.) He then points out that the early American colonists “brought with them into the New World a form of Christianity which I cannot better describe than by styling it a democratic and republican religion. This contributed powerfully to the establishment of a republic and a democracy in public affairs; and from the beginning, politics and religion contracted an alliance which has never been dissolved.” (Ibid., p. 311)

However, he emphasized the fact that this religious under-girding of the political structure was a common denominator of moral teachings in different denominations and not the political pressure of some national church hierarchy. Said he:

“The sects [different denominations] that exist in the United States are innumerable. They all differ in respect to the worship which is due to the Creator; but they agree in respect to the duties which are due from man to man. Each sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner, but all sects preach the same moral law in the name of God.... All the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same.... There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America.” (Ibid., p. 314)

It was astonishing to de Tocqueville that liberty and religion could be combined in such a balanced structure of harmony and good order. He wrote:

“... the revolutionists of America are obliged to profess an ostensible respect for Christian morality and equity, which does not permit them to violate wantonly the laws that oppose their designs.... Thus, while the law permits the Americans to do what they please, religion prevents them from conceiving and forbids them to commit, what is rash or unjust.” (Ibid., p. 316)

De Tocqueville Describes the Role of Religion in the Schools

De Tocqueville found that the schools, especially in New England, incorporated the basic tenets of religion right along with history and political science in order to prepare the student for adult life. He wrote:

“In New England every citizen receives the elementary notions of human knowledge; he is taught, moreover, the doctrines and the evidences of his religion, the history of his country, and the leading features of the Constitution. In the States of Connecticut and Massachusetts, it is extremely rare to find a man imperfectly acquainted with all these things, and a person wholly ignorant of them is a sort of phenomenon.” (Ibid., p. 327)

De Tocqueville Describes the Role of the American Clergy

Alexis de Tocqueville saw a unique quality of cohesive strength emanating from the clergy of the various churches in America. After noting that all the clergy seemed anxious to maintain “separation of church and state,” nevertheless, he observed that collectively they had a great influence on the morals and customs of public life. This indirectly reflected itself in the formulating of laws and ultimately in fixing the moral and political climate of the American commonwealth. As a result, he wrote:

“This led me to examine more attentively than I had hitherto done the station which the American clergy occupy in political society. I learned with surprise that they filled no public appointments; I did not see one of them in the administration, and they are not even represented in the legislative assemblies.” (Ibid., p. 320)

How different this was from Europe where the clergy belonged to a national church, subsidized by the government. He wrote:

“The unbelievers in Europe attack the Christians as their political opponents rather than as their religious adversaries; they hate the Christian religion as the opinion of a (political) party much more than as an error in belief; and they reject the clergy less because they are the representatives of the Deity than because they are the allies of government.” (Ibid., p. 325)

In America, he noted, the clergy remain politically separated from the government but nevertheless provide a moral stability among the people which permits the government to prosper. In other words, there is separation of church and state but not separation of church and religion.