Religion's Kidnapping of the Campaign by John MacArthur

[Guest guest]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1102-21.htm

It surely sounds quaint, but I've always taken to heart the old social

dictum not to mix religion in conversations with people I don't know well.

As even my wise-guy atheist father recognized, few things could offend

someone more deeply than a heedless remark, taken the wrong way, that calls

into question the wisdom of the Lord God Almighty. Americans hold dear their

articles of faith, and no one but the purest Enlightenment liberal truly

welcomes having his belief system challenged, even when the skeptic is

easily dismissed as a card-carrying infidel.

So it's with growing alarm over the course of this dreadful presidential

campaign that I've found my own faith -- in the Constitution and its

prohibition against the establishment of a state religion -- belittled again

and again by two strangers with no sense of social restraint. With an

enthusiasm bordering on the grotesque, George W. Bush and John Kerry have

leapfrogged one another to advertise their subservience to Jesus Christ and

the Christian god, without the least concern about whether it might offend

me or anyone else who doesn't share their bedrock belief in a higher power.

Of course, playing the God card is an old campaign tactic. But I hadn't been

taking it seriously as a political issue until I came across two books --

Cruel and Unusual, by Mark Crispin Miller, and Freethinkers, by Susan Jacoby

-- that recalled the age-old conflict in America between Christian orthodoxy

and Enlightenment reason.

We liberals sometimes forget that the United States has two sets of Founding

Fathers: the Puritans of Massachusetts (inspired largely by the 16th Century

French refugee to Switzerland John Calvin) and those remarkable avatars of

the American Enlightenment: Jefferson, Madison, Franklin and Paine (inspired

by, among others, the 18th Century French refugee to Switzerland Voltaire).

From their " City upon a Hill, " the ferocious ministers of Boston and Salem,

liberated from religious intolerance in England, sought to impose their own

version of Protestant intolerance on everyone living in the Massachusetts

Bay Colony -- to such a degree that one of our greatest religious dissidents

Roger Williams, fled south, to found the colony of Rhode Island.

Faced with the radical proposition put forward after the Revolution by

Jefferson and Madison -- that of a prohibition against any religious " test "

for public officials and trustees -- the mullahs of Massachusett let loose a

fusillade of rage. Susan Jacoby, in her book, cites one especially rabid

fulmination against the Constitution's Article VI during the ratification

debate at the Massachusetts convention: If the chief executive was to be

free to take office without swearing allegiance to God, said the orator, " a

Turk, a Jew, a Roman Catholic, and, what is worse than all, a Universalist

may be president of the United States. "

In New York, the Rev. John M. Mason declared that another radical innovation

-- the explicit omission of God from the new Constitution -- would have dire

consequences: " We will have every reason to tremble, lest the Governor of

the Universe, who will not be treated with indignity by a people more than

by individuals, overturn from its foundations the fabric we have been

rearing, and crush us to atoms in the wreck. "

Against this extreme Presbyterianism (in fact, an oversimplification of

Calvin's thoughts about church and state) were ranged the humor and common

sense of Jefferson: " It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are

twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. "

But behind the bon mot lay an intellect and determination made of steel. As

Mark Crispin Miller, in his book, observes, " it was to keep the people's

freedom thus preserved from the oppressive troops of any faith -- and

thereby keep religious liberty itself alive -- that Jefferson and his

associates deliberately conceived our godless Constitution. "

Later, during his presidency, Jefferson found the words that still galvanize

the freethinkers among us. Disturbed by Protestant ministers who sought to

subvert the First Amendment and establish an official American religion,

this " anti-Christ, " " French infidel " and " howling atheist " wrote: " I have

sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny

over the mind of man. "

More pertinent still -- in light of Bush's crusade against fundamentalist

Islam -- is the Treaty of Tripoli, of 1796. Signed by George Washington,

this text, better than any other, delineates the secular principles

cherished by the political elite of the time:

" As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense

founded on the Christian Religion -- as it has in itself no character of

enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of [Muslims] -- and as the

said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any

Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from

religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony

existing between the two countries. "

The treaty didn't immediately end the fighting with Islamic Libya, but the

sentiments reverberate down to our day. Do you hear, Osama bin Laden?

Muted, but never silenced, the argument between the party of God and my

party of secularism acquired new intensity with the legalization of abortion

in 1973. But now my side has no Jefferson to carry the standard of the

Enlightenment.

In his role as " saved " Christian (from alcohol, drugs, and financial and

political failure) President Bush has never missed a chance to profess his

fealty, not to the manmade Constitution but to Jesus Christ, " king of kings.

His attorney general, responsible for defending the separation of church

and state, composes and performs gospel songs and invites his subordinates

to morning prayers in the Justice Department.

Meanwhile, John Kerry, the quasi-secular Catholic, makes sure he's

photographed with the proper forehead smudge on Ash Wednesday. Threatened by

Catholic priests furious with his defense of abortion rights, he tries to

outdo Bush in his declarations of religious faith.

No surprise that in the final presidential " debate, " Bush again stated with

jaw-dropping arrogance that " God wants everybody to be free " and " that's

been part of my foreign policy. In Afghanistan, I believe that the freedom

there is a gift from the Almighty. "

Kerry, instead of simply affirming Article VI and the First Amendment, upped

the ante: " Everything is a gift from the Almighty "

More recently, in a speech in Florida, the Democratic candidate born into

the citadel of Puritanism employed the word " faith " 11 times, while

genuflecting to the enemies of liberty: those " great preachers and educators

who taught the founders of our nation to believe that we could create a

great and shining City on a Hill here in America. "

This is a religious qualification for public servants desired by Puritans

(ancient and modern) and banned by the Constitution -- yet now, in effect,

established. The vote today may well turn on the perception of each

candidate's religious faith.

Whoever wins, I fear that one of our principal constitutional jewels has

been permanently defaced, at least in spirit. And my secular party believes

fervently in a spirit -- the human kind.

John R. MacArthur, a monthly contributor, is publisher of Harper's Magazine.

© 2004 Providence Rhode Island Journal

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1102-21.htm

 

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