Religious Liberty and the Genius of the American Founding

Imprimis ^ | DECEMBER 2024 | Glenn Ellmers

[Retain Mike]

All ancient nations were closed societies in which civil and religious obedience were identical. All law was divine law. There was no such thing as religious toleration or religious pluralism. Priests were public officials, and there was no distinction between church and state.

In this respect, the Hebrews were like other ancient peoples. However, they were unique in one very important way: they were monotheistic, while other ancient nations typically had pantheons of gods. The Hebrew God was singular, mysterious, and omnipotent, and He was the God of the whole world. In this sense, Judaism prepared the way for Christianity, the first universal religion.

However, after Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 and the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476, three dilemmas emerged. First, there was one God, but many regimes. For the first time in the history of Western Civilization, religious and civil authority were separated. Second, following the split between divine and civil law, what was the source of political authority? The third dilemma was that the content of belief, or doctrine, became incredibly important in a way it was not in the ancient world.

Our founders were asserting that there was an objective moral order in the world because that world was created by a benevolent and reasonable God. This natural moral order exists outside of our will—it exists whether we like it or not. We are born into both a physical and a moral world that we do not create. The American Founders’ invocation of the transcendent moral authority of nature is one of the most remarkable acts of statesmanship in human history.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

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[Terry L Smith]

You might notfind me at either the castle of the NorthEasterner castle of the Congregational, the many spired cathedral of mom’s Irish Catholic church, orwith the Mezsianic gathering at B’et Y’shua,

Each and everyone, as Americans, has tbe right, spoken by Jefferson, to approach his god in his manner, without reproach from anyone, orany opposing belidf.

As an individual, I do not subscribe to any American’s faith being poo-poo’ed. I do agree in raising a child to one standard - don’t lie, don’t steal, and own up to your own foibles. Used to be, a man’s word -no matter what they believed - was their bond. Wouldn’t be nice to, at least, get back to that?

[jmacusa]

“Our Constitution was written for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.’’- John Adams.

[Albion Wilde]

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