My Continued Annoyance At Local Papers

Today, upon opening up the New Jersey Herald, I found this headline glaring back at me:

America is a Christian Nation

This was news to me as I consider myself to be relatively well informed and hadn't seen that on any news reports nor do I remember learning this in school.

As it turns out, this was the headline the Herald opted to use for their "Letters to the Editor" section and the following is the original letter by a reader:

Editor:

This letter is in response to a letter printed Sept. 15 regarding the separation of church and state by Susan Jones.

Having read your editorial on the separation of church and state, I’d like to let you know a few things and maybe educate you on your topic. It seems that you accepted a “generic” prayer for the victims of 9/11. Prayer, defined as a devout petition or communion with none other than God, according to you, was “more religious than a town sponsored event should be.” Perhaps you might let the rest of us know where we might find such information, i.e., rules and regulations regarding same.

As for the separation of church and state, you did not include where one might find that law regarding same. You might be surprised to find out that there is no law regarding separation of church and state. That was merely a phrase coined by Thomas Jefferson in a letter from him to a friend at the Baptist Association of Danbury, Conn., shortly after he became president. Jefferson, in fact, made numerous declarations afterward about the constitutional inability of the federal government to regulate, restrict or interfere with religious expression. To put this in simpler terms for you, had you read the First Amendment, you would have discovered that it was created to prevent the federal establishment of a national denomination. If you really must be told, this country was founded on basic Biblical principle. In fact the pilgrims (God bless them) were so afraid that anarchy would break out once they arrived here that they created the Mayflower Compact, a short but Christian document that put them all in agreement to keep God’s laws intact for their survival.

You also might not know that the U.S. Supreme Court declared America a Christian nation in 1892. Now I repeat, the Supreme Court (law of the land) declared America (your home) a Christian (followers of Jesus Christ) nation. Benjamin Franklin didn’t have to convince any of our founding fathers to pray for our creator, because they already were doing that. One might deduce that we are in a moral free fall since Madeline O’Hare succeeded in removing the Bible from public schools to “protect” her school-age son, who is now an evangelical Christian, from Christianity. We are living in amazing times when a president attempts to declare that we are not a Christian nation. But that is OK, because Presidents Adams, Roosevelt, Wilson, Hoover, Truman and Nixon already beat him to it.

You might try a lesson in history and civics, and maybe a visit to a church, for the education you need.

Chris Janiec
Vernon

Using the resources I have available to me (read: the official government website as well as that of the Constitution) I wrote the following letter that I will be sending out tomorrow to the Herald:

This letter is in response to a letter to the editor from Chris Janiec of Vernon that ran Monday, September 21, 2009. He originally wrote it in response to a prayer read at a town-sponsored event.

In this letter, the following claims were made:
1) The First Amendment was created to prevent the federal establishment of a national denomination.
2) The Pilgrims were afraid of anarchy would ensue upon reaching the shore so they created a “Christian document” called the Mayflower Compact.
3) The U.S. Supreme Court declared America a Christian nation in 1892.
4) There is no law that forces a separation of church and state and the phrase came from a letter Thomas Jefferson sent shortly after becoming president.

I was astonished at the incredibly twisted and biased interpretation of these statements. Allow me to now correct a few facts.
1) The First Amendment reads as follows: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (Found easily on the U.S. Government’s website under “Constitution”)

If Congress cannot make a law respecting an establishment of religion, then it is clear that Congress does not have the jurisdiction to declare America a Christian nation. While this does not choose a specific facet of Christianity, it does imply that all Americans are followers of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, even if Congress does not pick a specific sect of Christianity, it still discriminates any Americans who do not consider themselves to be Christian and forces them to associate governmental laws and mandates with Christian philosophies and principles that do not pertain to their religion of choice. The First Amendment very blatantly protects their right (as well as yours) to practice their religion in the United States.

2) The Pilgrims’ Mayflower Compact was lost but transcripts are available from a number of sources, including William Bradford’s journal Of Plymouth Plantation. This document does in fact have a number of references to God and was designed to be a guideline for how their new government would run. What needs to be said, however, is that the Pilgrims were escaping religious persecution for practicing their faith. This means that while the document may be Christian in nature, it makes sense because those who established the document and those who signed all belonged to the same faith. So yes, they were founding the first colony as a “Christian Colony.” At this point in history, the citizens of any given European country were expected to practice the religions of their kings. This is the way it had been for hundreds of years and this is the model the Pilgrims used to form their own government. This is not the case in modern America where we are not forced to practice the religion of our president nor do we all belong to the same faith.

3) The United States Supreme Court never ruled that America is officially and legally a Christian nation. If this were the case, then any number of court trials, including the one mentioned in Mr. Janiec’s letter about removing the Bible from public schools would not have been allowed.

The supposed ruling he was referring to came from a court trial, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, and was actually in regards to an employment contract between The Church of the Holy Trinity, New York and an English preacher. The act of 1885 prohibited the “importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its territories, and the District of Columbia.”

The court ruled that the circuit court erred in concluding that the church could not hire an English minister. Justice Brewer stated that “America is a Christian nation” when explaining his reasoning for allowing the minister to work for the church. This statement was NOT the outcome or ruling of the Supreme Court. It was simply a statement that the justice used to introduce his explanation that he felt the country's moral ground (which he, as a Christian, felt was rooted in Christian principles) allowed for a soft interpretation of the Act of 1885 which was put into effect to prevent the hiring of illegal immigrants for American jobs.


4) Finally, while Thomas Jefferson may have coined the term “separation of church and state,” he and James Madison both have stated that the United States Constitution was drafted with this philosophy in mind and after the ratification of the Constitution in 1789, James Madison wrote “practical distinction between Religion and Civil Government is essential to the purity of both, and as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.” He goes on to say that “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 that Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.” (These quotes can be found in Monopolies Perpetuities Corporations – Ecclesiastical Endowments by James Madison, found on the government’s website.)

The Constitution does mention religion specifically under the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. Both mention a separation of church and state as well as focusing on state actions that may amount to a government establishment of religion.

So, Mr. Janiec, as you suggested that I might “try a lesson in history and civics and maybe a visit to a church for the education [I] need,” I suggest that you try your local library and be sure you know what you are quoting before making umbrella statements about the intention of our nation’s founding fathers or Supreme Court rulings.

Hesper

I'm sure there are people out there who will argue with me but please note that I never said our country was not founded on Judaic-Christian philosophies. It was. There is no arguing that. But to declare that our country is specifically Christian is to say that I, as well as many of my friends and family, can legally be discriminated against for not opting to accept Jesus as my savior. To be frank, while attending a town-sponsored event, I do not feel comfortable praying nor am I comfortable knowing my town has specifically chosen to pray when a moment of silence and personal meditation would have sufficed. This way, each individual is allowed the opportunity to reflect or pray to the higher power of his or her choice.

Also it annoys me when people use false facts, especially when they can easily be researched and confirmed or corrected.