Political debates and disagreements in America have often stemmed from its citizens not being able to settle on a single definition of what the role of Government should play. Thomas Jefferson, a key Founding Father, defined the role of the government as purely for the protection of life, liberty, and property and that it should keep peace and order in our highly individualistic society. He believed it should only protect those unalienable rights and should otherwise allow its people to live freely however they choose. Other political and non-political figures throughout history have strongly believed that the role of government contains more duties than just merely protection; they believe government should also be responsible for upholding the moral codes of its people. Those who believed the sole purpose of government was to protect its people agreed that the state should remain secular and separate from all religious affiliation. Those that believed the government should also be responsible for its citizens’ ethical codes thought that a religiously affiliated government was the only way to ensure peace and good morals. Therein lies the root of the major debate that has been present in our country since the start: The Separation of Church and State.
There is a very common misconception that the United States of America was and is to this day an essentially Christian nation. I, myself, was under the impression that our Founding Fathers were all religious men and therefore intended our country to be a religious one. “In God we Trust” is printed in bold letters on our currency, that right there gives you the impression that our country was founded on religious affiliation. The truth is that this country was built from the ideals of the Age of Reason, not Jesus Christ. The Constitution was modeled after the ideas and writings of John Locke, a leading figure in the Enlightenment. The creators of the Constitution critically analyzed their history and their current situation and wrote a Constitution representing a government that would benefit the majority of the country’s people and give a strong basis for the protection of life, liberty and property. The Constitution is one of the most beautifully written and important documents the world has seen. It is a true model of reason, rationality and justice.
I believe the Founding Fathers were truly amazing and reliable thinkers that have given us the best basis for a government that we could have asked for. To honor them, though, we must adopt the rational and critical thinking that they put into the Constitution into the way we relate to and understand the document’s purpose. We must take into consideration the context of the Constitution: when it was written and what was currently going on at the time that would affect the way it was written. We also must be familiar with the authors and their own ideas and histories. If we studied the Constitution’s history accordingly, we could clearly see that the Founding Fathers were strong advocates for the Separation of Church and State. Such misconceptions would no longer be present in our country. The Constitution was not a holy document formed out of absolute perfection. It was a brilliant text written through research, critical analysis, discussion, observations and revisions; essentially, it was a result of very hard work. If we as citizens were to become experts on our Constitution and our history, I believe our country would have significantly less conflict.
A perfect example of constitutional misinterpretation lies in the current day “Tea Partiers”. They use this idea of the Constitution holding all the answers of our country’s problems when, in fact, they are incorrect in their own interpretation. They hold a strong belief that the Separation of Church and State is detrimental to the success of our country when in fact their beloved Constitution clearly states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Tea Partiers tend to narrow this translation into meaning only that there should be no national church. When examined logically, in its broader historical sense, the First Amendment clearly states that no establishment or exercise of religion should be favored by the State.
The essence, I believe of The Separation of Church and State is really about the separation of personal belief and democratic reason. While our Founding Fathers were all very religious men, they knew the importance of this separation and formed the constitution based on it. Church and State must remain separate in order to sustain freedom and justice. This does not mean our country is an anti-religious one; it merely means that a single institutional opinion (religion) cannot rule the lives of a whole country, while retaining liberty and peace.
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