Window or Mirror?

For the period of history before our nation came into being, people believed that rights and freedom came from God, but that they then flowed to a king, and that the king gave these rights to the people as he saw fit. Our Founding Fathers turned this system on his head when they proposed to start a government that recognized that freedom and rights were given by God to everyone, and that people then apportioned these rights back to the government as they saw fit.

In this nation today, we hear a great deal about a “separation of church and state”. When I ask people where that appears in our founding documents, most people hem and haw and the bolder ones cite “the 1st Amendment”. But neither the word “state” nor the word “separation” are in that Amendment. When I give this reasoning, the answer I get is, “But that’s what they meant“. Isn’t it? How do we know that?

The question – though some still have it – is not whether or not the Founding Fathers were predominantly Christian in their outlook (they were), the question is, “What did they intend when penning the Constitution?”

Today we have a concept called “legislative intent “. This means that the lawmaker puts his or her bill to the assembly and that notes are taken while the lawmaker speaks, rebuts, and answers questions on the bill. In this way, the record (journal) can be referred to and we can discern his or her intent with that bill. Much in the same way, we can look at the record of the constitutional convention (May 14, 1787 – Sep 17, 1787) and find the same thing. Rather than continue to have nine deity-like justices do that for me, I’ve dug through those documents and would like to share what I’ve found in the hopes that you’ll do some digging too.

Isaac Potts relates a story that is common among those who knew George Washington. One day Isaac, a Tory in a family of Tories, came upon Mr. Washington on his knees in the woods giving heartfelt prayer to his Maker. Potts was so touched by what he observed, that he went home and called a family meeting. He said that if a man prayed like that, his prayers would be answered and that he and his family had chosen the wrong side in the conflict. An artist (Brueckner) then painted a picture that we have seen many times, a picture of President Washington in prayer in the woods, with a man peeking ’round a tree at him. The man pictured behind the tree is Mr. Potts’.

Governor Morris was a signer of the Constitution and was the most prolific speaker at the Constitution (he spoke 173 times). He also penned the document, thus he could be considered the “Thomas Jefferson” of this document. Do you think that this man might have a good idea where religion was “intended” to fit in the creation of this new country? Gov. Morris stated, “Religion is the only solid basis of good morals. Therefore education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man toward God”. This sounds much like our system of education and religion working together, not the opposite situation we see now.

James Wilson, signer of the Constitution, spoke 168 times at the convention, first appointee to the Supreme Court said, “Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine. Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other”. In this country a murder conviction was overturned on a technicality. The offense? The prosecuting attorney read a Bible verse in the courtroom. If you mix law and religion today, convicted murders might walk free, but the first appointee to the Supreme Court in this nation, present at the signing, stated that, “these two sciences run into each other”.

Lee v. Weisman states that there may be no prayer at a public school graduation. William Samuel Johnson, signer of the Constitution gave a graduation speech and contained within were these words, “You this day ..have.. received a public education, the purpose whereof has been to qualify you to better serve your Creator and your country.. your first great duties, if you are sensible, are those you owe to heaven, to your Creator and Redeemer”. Then, speaking straight from Acts, he closes with, “Let those be ever present to your minds and exemplified in your lives and conduct.. Students, in Him we live and move and have our being”.

In the group of 56 men that attended the convention there were some interesting stories. Of this group, twenty-four (24) had seminary degrees. Aside from Thomas Jefferson (present at the end of the proceedings) and Benjamin Franklin, all 56 men were actively involved in the faith in some form. Eight (8) years after the convention men from this group were responsible for starting 121 Bible societies. Several exist yet today. Here are some specific notes on several attendees:

• Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, he was considered the “Billy Graham” of his day
• Sec. Charles Thompson. translated the Thompson version of the Bible
• Benjamin Rush, started the first Bible society in America
• Francis Hopkinson, made a songbook in which all 150 Psalms were set to music
• Abraham Baldwin, a major theologian of his day, was offered a professorship at Yale at age 23, chaplain in the Revolutionary War for 7 years, and founded the Univ. of Georgia
• Charles Cotesworth Pinkney and John Langdon, started the American Bible Society
• James McHenry, started the Baltimore Bible society

As mentioned before, Benjamin Franklin was not involved in religion as much as the rest, in fact, both sides of this debate can agree that he was the least religious of the bunch. In an age where the average age of death was 35, this 81 year-old statesman rose and addressed the convention at a critical point in the proceedings with this short treatise, “In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. And have we now forgotten this powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that ‘except the Lord build the house. they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. I therefore beg leave to move that, henceforth, prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessing on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business”. This from the least religious of the Founding Fathers.

I hope that these anecdotes and notes have proven helpful to you in your search for the truth where the intent and inception of our nation is concerned. Soon I’ll post a second and final post on these notes, and I welcome your comments.

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