While a resolution that would have cleared the way for an official state religion in North Carolina was quickly pulled from consideration by the state’s Republican Speaker of the House, a new poll indicates that a large number of Americans would like their own home state —along with the entire nation—to make Christianity the official religion of their state and country.
An Omnibus Poll, sponsored by YouGov.com and the Huffington Post, reveals just how far from the nation’s roots we have traveled on the subject of separating church and state and retaining the nation’s neutrality when it comes to how Americans chose to practice their respective religions.
According to the survey, 34 percent of Americans would favor making Christianity their official state religion while less than half (47 percent) oppose the concept. Thirty-two percent of those polled indicated that they would also favor a constitutional amendment that would make Christianity the official religion of the United States with just over half (52 percent) opposing the notion.
At least those polled clearly understand that establishing an official religion for their state would require a constitutional amendment as only 11 percent believe the Constitution currently allows a state to establish an official religion while 58 percent do not believe it to be constitutional. Thirty-one percent simply were not sure.
Not surprisingly, Republicans were more likely to support Christianity as the official state and national religion with 55 percent supporting the idea for their state and 46 percent in favor of making their Christian faith the official religion of the United States.
There is, of course, considerable disagreement over whether the Founders believed the establishment of a national religion to be consistent with their vision for America. There is even more disagreement over whether the creators of the Constitution viewed any restraints they may have placed on the federal government in this regard to be applicable to states.
We do have a pretty good idea as to how James Madison, considered to be the “Father of the U.S. Constitution”, felt about this.
In an 1822 letter to Edward Livingston, Madison wrote:
“Notwithstanding the general progress made within the two last centuries in favour of this branch of liberty, and the full establishment of it in some parts of our country, there remains in others a strong bias towards the old error, that without some sort of alliance or coalition between Government and Religion neither can be duly supported. Such, indeed, is the tendency to such a coalition, and such its corrupting influence on both the parties, that the danger cannot be too carefully guarded against. And in a Government of opinion like ours, the only effectual guard must be found in the soundness and stability of the general opinion on the subject. Every new and successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between the ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together. It was the belief of all sects at one time that the establishment of Religion by law was right and necessary; that the true religion ought to be established in exclusion of every other; and that the only question to be decided was, which was the true religion. The example of Holland proved that a toleration of sects dissenting from the established sect was safe, and even useful. The example of the colonies, now States, which rejected religious establishments altogether, proved that all sects might be safely and even advantageously put on a footing of equal and entire freedom; and a continuance of their example since the Declaration of Independence has shown that its success in Colonies was not to be ascribed to their connection with the parent country. If a further confirmation of the truth could be wanted, it is to be found in the examples furnished by the States, which had abolished their religious establishments. I cannot speak particularly of any of the cases excepting that of Virginia, where it is impossible to deny that religion prevails with more zeal and a more exemplary priesthood than it ever did when established and patronized by public authority. We are teaching the world the great truth, that Governments do better without kings and nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson: the Religion flourishes in greater purity without, than with the aid of Government.”
As for Madison’s view of how the First Amendment should be applied to the states, Robert Alley writes in his book entitled, “James Madison on Religious Liberty”, that Madison believed the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment should be applied beyond the federal government:
“Mr. Madison conceived this to be the most valuable amendment on the whole list; if there was any reason to restrain the government of the United States from infringing upon these essential rights, it was equally necessary that they should be secured against the state governments; he thought that if they provided against the one, it was an necessary to provide against the other, and was satisfied that it would be equally grateful to the people.”
Still, many argue that the Establishment Clause was intended to prohibit Congress from getting involved with religion and that the prohibition was only intended to apply to the federal government. There is reason to believe that such a position may be correct given that many states continued to have ‘official’ religions that survived into the 1800’s before disappearing.
However, a series of Supreme Court rulings spanning almost 100 years have made clear that the First Amendment’s religious prohibitions are to be applied to the states. This line of cases culminated in what is known as “The Lemon Test”, as set forth by the Burger Court in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971).
This test sets out the limits on the states when it comes to how they may legislate religious issues:
The law or state policy must have been adopted with a neutral or non religious purpose.
The principle or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion.
The statute or policy must not result in an “excessive entanglement” of government with religion.
Whatever your own constitutional perspective may be when it comes to the propriety of either state or federal government establishing an official religion, each of us must consider the impact such a practice would likely have on the fundamental rights we have long valued as Americans.
While every religious belief practiced by Americans is to be honored and respected—so long as such belief is not intended to do harm or infringe upon the rights and beliefs of others—once a particular religion is chosen above all others as the ‘official’ religion, it becomes virtually impossible to suggest that the government remains neutral and offers equal respect and deference to all such religions in equal measure.
Choosing one religion as the ‘official’ religion is tantamount to saying that “the chosen” is, somehow, better—or more correct—than another belief practice.
This is as fundamentally un-American as it gets.
Those who favor Christianity (or any other religion) being chosen as the official American religion must be prepared to explain why they view it as preferable— or even acceptable—to place another American’s religious belief “below” their own. And as we consider the profound disagreements that exist between the many organized churches within the Christian faith, how long would it be before Americans are fighting over whether the Protestant Church, by way of example, should be the official religion of a state or the nation thereby excluding Catholics, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, or any other Christian based faith?
Is this really what our Founders wanted for this country?
Even if you believe that our founding documents do not prohibit a body of government from establishing an official religion—all evidence to the contrary—Americans would do well to consider whether this is really what they believe to be best for their nation and where such a direction might ultimately take us.
One hopes that upon giving it further consideration, all Americans would come to the conclusion that making any religion the ‘official’ religion would only serve to violate one of most fundamental freedoms and send us down a road our Founders never intended us to travel.