MY TURN: What others say about church and state
I’d like to respond to Jeff Odland’s My Turn of Feb. 19 in favor of adding religion to government. Let’s recognize that the United States of America was, in large part, founded on religious freedom. Freedom of and freedom from. And I agree with you, Jeff, we should consider what’s been said on the subject, including as far back as those Founding Fathers.
Let’s start with that pesky First Amendment. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.” — Thomas Jefferson.
“The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles?” — John Adams.
“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” — Thomas Paine.
“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise ... During almost 15 centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.” — James Madison.
“I could not do otherwise (call a day of prayer and fasting) without transcending the limits prescribed by the Constitution for the President and without feeling that I might in some degree disturb the security which religion nowadays enjoys in this country in its complete separation from the political concerns of the General Government.” — Andrew Jackson in a letter to the Synod of the Reformed Church of North America, June 12, 1832, explaining his refusal to proclaim a "day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer.”
“Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate.” — Ulysses S. Grant.
“The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no Church property anywhere, in any state or in the nation, should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a tax upon the whole community.” — James Garfield.
“I hold that in this country there must be complete severance of Church and State; that public moneys shall not be used for the purpose of advancing any particular creed; and therefore that the public schools shall be non-sectarian and no public moneys appropriated for sectarian schools.” — Theodore Roosevelt.
“I believe in the American tradition of separation of church and state which is expressed in the First Amendment to the Constitution. By my office--and by personal conviction — I am sworn to uphold that tradition.” — Lyndon B. Johnson.
And here’s one I picked out just for you, Jeff. “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the (Republican) party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.” — Barry Goldwater.
I’ve heard that a person’s relationship with a god is personal, and I agree. As such, it also goes to say that religion belongs in two places and two places only. In your church and in your home. It doesn’t belong in our schools, and it doesn’t belong in our government. Let’s keep it that way.
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Dave Walker is a resident of Coeur d'Alene.