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Thanksgiving, the Framers and Secularism

22 November 2006

The debate has raged in America for years now concerning the place of religion, specifically Judeo-Christian religion, in the public sphere. Secularists today claim that religion has no place in the public square and that the founder never intended it to. To them, the establishment clause of the First Amendment takes ultimate precedence over the free exercise clause and, indeed, the establishment clause means much more than it actually says.

The First Amendment, as it relates to religion, says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” There is nothing in that text that elevates the first section over the second. The establishment clause merely prohibits the Congress from establishing a state religion, something the founders had great reason to fear considering the Church of England was the reason many had emigrated to America in the first place. Moreover, the free exercise clause would appear, at least to the average person, to prevent Congress from doing anything that might prevent religion in the public square. Alas, secularists have succeeded in getting the courts to see it otherwise.

We now live in a country that prohibits, in most cases, the display of Christian religious symbols of any kind on public property on the basis that doing so amounts to “an establishment of religion.” We live in a country where the mere fact that a person holds religious beliefs, if those beliefs are Christian, is grounds to disqualify him from holding public office in the eyes of many. We are told that politics and religion have nothing to do with each other the two should be kept entirely separate. And we are told that the founders, people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson never intended it to be any other way.

The obvious question is, does the historic record support such claims or are they simply spurious claims designed to sidestep the truth in favor of a society preferred by the elites? Fortunately these are questions that have answers that can be found by simply looking at the historical record. And it seems to me that Thanksgiving is, perhaps, the most appropriate time for doing so.

On October 14, 1789, George Washington signed the Thanksgiving Proclamation. Here is the text of that document.

General Thanksgiving
________________________________________
By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America
A PROCLAMATION
________________________________________
WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houfes of Congress have, by their joint committee, requefted me “to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to eftablifh a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and affign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of thefe States to the fervice of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our fincere and humble thanksfor His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the fignal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpofitions of His providence in the courfe and conclufion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have fince enjoyed;– for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to eftablish Conftitutions of government for our fafety and happinefs, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;– for the civil and religious liberty with which we are bleffed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffufing useful knowledge;– and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleafed to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in moft humbly offering our prayers and fupplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and befeech Him to pardon our national and other tranfgreffions;– to enable us all, whether in publick or private ftations, to perform our feveral and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a bleffing to all the people by conftantly being a Government of wife, juft, and conftitutional laws, difcreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all fovereigns and nations (especially fuch as have shewn kindnefs unto us); and to blefs them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increafe of fcience among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind fuch a degree of temporal profperity as he alone knows to be beft.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand feven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

(Note: The above resolution is the orginal text, complete with old English spellings and letters. It is somewhat difficult to read but it is readable.)

The very first statement in this proclamation says, “it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour.” Whatever other founders may have thought, Washington clearly believed that it was the duty of every person to believe in and worship God and that it was the work of God that was responsible for the American success. He also claimed that his proclamation was at the unanimous request of both Houses of Congress. So the holiday we celebrate tomorrow is the result of a proclamation of one of our founding fathers, George Washington.

One of the strongest arguments the secularists use is the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli. This treaty says, “The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion.” This treaty, ratified during the administration of George Washington would appear to rule out the notion that the United States was founded on Christian principles. As with most writings of the past, however, one must have some idea of the context in order to grasp the meaning. In this case, the context was a treaty with a country used to dealing with governments that were absolute theocracies. The Muslim world, then as now, was replete with theocratic Islamic governments. According to Jenn Sierra:

This statement is found only in the Arabic first version of the treaty of Tripoli, and probably was not found in the English translation…it was not included in the either the Arabic or English versions of the treaty written a few years later.The best answer I have read thus far to this argument is a lengthy and excellently-researched article by James Patrick Holding, called Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Flub? He concludes by saying, “The essential message would be that America was not a Christian theocracy, or a state where the church had political power, as the religious authorities in Muslim nations had power — which is something no one argues for America…

So it would seem that what initially appeared to be one of their strongest argments turns out to be no argument at all unless taken completely out of its historical context. Of course, secularists seem to have little objection to doing just that to make any evidence say more than it actually says or other than it actually says.

Even Thomas Jefferson, perhaps the most secular of all the founders, turns out to be less that the outstanding witness the secularists would have us believe. Jefferson’s statement to the Danbury Baptist, the origin of the commonly used “separation of church and state” mantra in use today, is taking out of context and demonstrably twisted to mean something other than what it meant. Jefferson was assuring the Danbury Baptists that what they and others feared would not happen, that is, there would be no official state religion to worry about suffering persecution under.

Christopher Levenick & Michael Novak, writing in National Review in response to an article in The Nation by Brook Allen entitled Our Godless Constitution, point out some interesting facts about Jefferson:

She claims that “in modern-day parlance” Thomas Jefferson was “a secular humanist” – indeed, “not a Christian at all.” It’s a strange claim, especially since, not three sentences before, she quotes Jefferson’s letter to Charles Thomson, in which Jefferson adamantly insists, “I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus” (emphasis Jefferson’s). Presumably Jefferson was privy to the content of his own beliefs, but Allen seems to think she knows better.

(snip)

Thomas Jefferson shared this sentiment entirely, as when he famously wondered whether “the liberties of a nation [can] be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but by his wrath?”

Indeed, many of our founding fathers expressed the view that our form of government could only survive in a society that was moral and had religion as the basis of that morality. Levenick & Novak have more to say on that subject:

John Adams likewise held the opinion that republican government required religious practice, as when he wrote as president: “We have no government armed with power of contending with human passions unbridled by morality or religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Such thinking runs throughout the whole of American political life, from Washington to Lincoln to Roosevelt to Reagan, and up to the present day. It is a tradition from which President Bush has not deviated.

Other common arguments of the secularists include:

The claim that the Constitution never mentions God – False, God is mentioned in the enactment clause of Article VII.
The Declaration of Independence rarely mentions God – Allen claimed only two mentions but there are four. Excluding the list of grievances against King George III, God is mentioned in virtually every paragraph!
Little mention in the Federalist Papers – If you exclude all mentions that do not use the word God, it is indeed few. However, the framers rarely refereed to God as God. More typically they used language like Divine Providence and such references are numerous in the Federalist.
Claims that Madison was critical of Christianity when he was really critical of state religion.
Claims that Washington rarely refereed to God in his writings when in fact he did so often.

The list goes on in every case, the secularists either misstate the facts, ignore the facts or twist the facts. It is inescapable that, for the most part, the founders were religious people who believed that God had specially blessed this country and that, indeed, without that blessing this country could not have been created. Many, and perhaps most, believed that Christianity was essential to the future survival of America and stated so often.

We do indeed have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving day but we also have much to be concerned about. It has been said that America is now a post Christian nation and I tend to agree with that statement. If that is true, there is little reason to expect that God will continue to bless this country as He has in the past. I am not in the boat with those who are quick to call every bad event God’s judgment. I believe, however, that without God’s blessing, the American experiment is not likely to continue its great success.

Below is a copy of the original Thanksgiving Proclamation that ran in the Massachusetts Centinel on October 14, 1789.