Religion [and Politics] Should Be Separate

Some have the idea that America was a Christian nation; that is a false assumption. America was the dumping pot of Europe--they sent their criminals and impoverished lowbrows to this new world just to cleanse their lands of the so-called unsophisticated populous.

Somehow the insane took over the asylum. We became the land and the “government of the people, by the people, for the people”--the safe haven for the world’s lost and beleaguered.

We have been force-fed half-truths and idealistic notions about the faith of our United States. We heard from the classroom to the pulpit to the home that our nation was a Christian nation, and that itself was spread to us by people whom themselves had never read the complete U.S. Constitution, if at all.

Joseph Ellis, historian and author, answered a question about the intended faith of our nation, “Jefferson, along with Madison, is the author of the famous separation of church and state principle, which essentially insists that there be no government enforcement of any particular religious denominational preference.”

The Framers of Constitution would be undoubtedly appalled by their fellow countrymen of today. The Framers stood up against the world’s most commanding nation to gain the freedom to establish a nation that viewed liberty as the core of its existence, not an overbearing Theocracy.

In a letter to Samuel Kercheval in 1810, Jefferson said, "But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State."

Robert Carver, historian, wrote, “At the Constitutional Convention, the Framers looked to the examples of antiquity, the Greeks and the Romans and not to the Ten Commandments. They were a pragmatic lot, and they were not interested in being bound by their religious heritage, despite today's claims to the contrary.

“Rather, they were searching for virtually any idea, from virtually any source, that would work to create a better government than the failure produced by the Articles of Confederation.”

John Leland, a Baptist preacher, wrote to the Framer as they were drafting the Constitution, “The liberty I contend for is more than toleration. The very idea of toleration is despicable; it supposes that some have a pre-eminence above the rest to grant indulgence; whereas all should be equally free, Jews, Turks [Muslims], Pagans and Christians. Test oaths and established creeds should be avoided as the worst of evils.”

The Baptists, under a state united with a church, suffered extremely. Baptist preachers were fined, imprisoned, and tortured for advising their congregations to read the Bible for themselves--something of which the state church disapproved.

Also, citizens had to pay tithes to the state church, even if they did not attend said church. This still occurs in many of the world’s nation, such as many European nations.

The Framers of the U.S. Constitution seeing this noticed the uncanny similarities between these treatments of citizens in the newly established United States and the old tyranny of England.

The Framers made a conscious decision to deflate these motives of cruel treatments and inhumane practices before they would be exacerbated any longer and eventually tearing their fragile nation apart at the seams--destined to be another failed, degrading, self-righteous Theocracy.


I have been very ill; I have missed a week and half worth of classes. I wrote a six page paper awhile back on this topic. So I just cut it down that 3000 word argument to 540 word column. However, for the newspaper it was too long and they cut it even more--that is, to 390 words. I am posting my draft here because I feel that the three paragraphs that were cut were the most important.