A Christian Nation
My boss repeated an old trope that really bugs me the other day. When talking about an atheist who goes from suburb to suburb, suing the government into removing their religious displays, he said he has a problem with it because "this is a Christian nation, founded on Christian principles." I was going to start leading him through why that is fundamentally untrue when something came up and we had actual work to do. That sense of interruptus is what brings me to write this.
This is easy as hell to dismiss. At the core of the foundation of this country are the founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It isn't unfair or inaccurate to suggest, I think, that these three documents provide insight into the mentality of the Founding Fathers. That is to say, if one wants to find the principles on which this country was founded, that's the first place one should look. If I want to look for Christian principles in the country's founding, for example, that's where I'd look.
While there are many tenets to Christian morality, at their core are the Ten Commandments (this isn't actually true in terms of Judaic law, but Jewish scholars tend not to be Christian. There are hundreds of commandments in the Torah, and the first ten are not regarded as more important than any of the others). Of course, there are five or six different versions of the Decalogue, so I'll go with St. Augustine's version, which most conservative churches observe.
1. I am the Lord your God... You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol...
That's pretty simple, right? The closest thing to a mention of properly worshipping God is in the Declaration, but all that says on the matter is to examine the "separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle" us, and declare that it is self-evident that we are "endowed by our Creator certain inalienable rights." While "God" and "Creator" are capitalized like proper nouns, it's worth remembering that it was written by one man, and that man was a deist (so the God and Creator to which he referred were unlikely to be the God of the Bible). In any case, in no way does this imply that any single person, or the nation as a whole, is bound to worship this Creator as dictated by the First Commandment.
2. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Blasphemy is protected by the First Amendment: 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.
It's actually double-protected, since outlawing blasphemy would not only abridge the freedom of speech, but would also respect an establishment of religion.
3. Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy...; you shall not do any work...
That's not mentioned in any of the three documents, for or against, but again, enforcing that would represent an establishment of religion (especially since not all religions have a Sabbath, and Christianity is the only Abrahamic tradition that considers it to be Sunday).
4. Honor your father and your mother...
It's a nice sentiment, but I don't see it anywhere in the founding documents. It has, by some scholars, been interpreted broader, with "father and mother" representing all those with rightful authority over you, including but not limited to your parents, God and your government. The European monarchy was believed to have the divine right of rule, yet the Declaration of Independence was a direct dishonoring of the tyrannical rule of King George. So literally, it's irrelevant, and more broadly, it's actually contradicted by the very existence of America.
5. You shall not kill.
7. Neither shall you steal.
These aren't really addressed by the founding documents, but let's be honest; they aren't Judeo-Christian principles any more than they are American -- these are societal rules as old as society itself. Every culture has some version of them and its own little collection of exceptions to them. In America, we worship fictional heroes like Robin Hood and Batman. We make movies with heroes like John Matrix and John Rambo and John McClain. The rules get circumvented and bent and avoided and the heroes stop being right because they do what's right and start being right because they're the heroes. The people of the US seem to perceive ourselves that way; we can wage pre-emptive wars absent a tangible or even perceptible threat, we can dismiss the entirety of the world community but demand their respect, we can be belligerent and smug and get away with it because we're... well, we're a Christian nation.
Bull.
6. Neither shall you commit adultery.
Like 5 and 7, 6 is prohibitive. In fact, all of the 10 Commandments (and hundreds of other commandments) are directive and mostly prohibitive. On the contrary, the founding documents are all based on the idea that people need to be free to make their own choices and their own mistakes. There aren't many prohibitive statements in the Constitution or Bill of Rights (directed at the citizenry, anyway; they're both concerned with curbing the authority of the government) -- treason is the only one I'm sure of without checking. While it's true there are Biblical statements that command the freedom of the individual be respected, there really aren't that many of them, and they kind of pale in comparison with all the orders issued regarding behavior, personal relationships, business and even thoughts. I think it's a little difficult to reconcile "don't eat shellfish because it's an abomination before the LORD" with "everybody deserves to be free." If I'm free, I have the freedom to screw up my marriage*.
8. Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.
The most common interpretation of this is a flat-out prohibition on lying. I don't read it that way, but most people think the fifth Commandment is "don't kill" rather than "don't murder." The Christians who influenced me growing up appear not to have had much of a gift for nuance.
Anyway, no; there is nothing about lying in the founding documents. Lying in court was a punishable offense by the law at the time, but the founding fathers didn't actually see much of a reason to change the British Colonial Laws under which the colonies were governed -- it was a good set of laws**, only undermined by the economic drain of sending all their taxes overseas. However, saying things that aren't true is not in direct opposition to the founding American principles. It's not inherently in line with them, either, but it's not explicitly prohibited (though there are a number of situations beyond perjury where untrue statements are not protected speech).
The more specific reading of the Commandment is word-for-word -- don't incriminate other people falsely. Somehow this Commandment got ignored during the Salem Witch Trials. There's an interesting piece here about bearing false witness (search the term on his site, actually; he writes about it occasionally and it's good stuff), but for me, I'm trying to compare it to America's founding principles. It correlates with the broader prohibition of lying, but that doesn't answer the issue to my satisfaction.
My first inclination is to bring up the courts again. After all, it's extremely relevant to bearing witness of any kind, and bearing false witness would logically undermine the court system, which exists to uphold the rest of the system. I'm sure there were cultures that had prohibitions on lying as suggested above, but this more nuanced position -- the prohibition of lying to get someone else in trouble -- may be the first uniquely Judeo-Christian value in the Decalogue. It may also be the first in which the Biblical value might have directly influenced the founding values (though this may also be covered by the British Colonial Law). If so, it's sad that it took eight most important rules to get to one that might seriously count as Christian influence in the US government rather than societal necessity.
9. Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife.
Since coveting is lust and adultery is sex, this is the same commandment as 6.
10. Neither shall you desire your neighbor's house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
George Carlin's answer to why this commandment is bullshit covers my answer of why it's not an American value:
This one is just plain fuckin' stupid. Coveting your neighbor's goods is what keeps the economy going! Your neighbor gets a vibrator that plays "o come o ye faithful", and you want one too! Coveting creates jobs, so leave it alone.
We're capitalists (sort of). We like money, we like owning stuff, and it's been that way ever since the Constitution was written -- the Bill of Rights, if you read it through, appears to want to add "and property" to the inalienable rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence.
This is obviously an oversimplification, but it addresses most of the salient points. The statement I quoted above, "founded on Christian principles" always makes me wonder, "which ones?" The only other major Christian principle I can come up with that they might be talking about is the Golden Rule (which, of course, is a pre-Christian, secular ethical concept), but again, I don't really see how that applies; the US was certainly not founded on the principle of "do unto others..."
Sure, the founders were predominantly Christian (though not as many as modern Christians would have you believe -- most of the ones whose names you know were deists), but they knew that religion's influence in government needed to be minimal.
* It's not obvious here, but I have poly friends, and I make a distinction between "adultery" and "extramarital sex."
** It's worth mentioning that the "strict constructionalist" interpretation of the Constitution, ostensibly the position that interprets it as the Founding Fathers intended it, ignores this fact when it states its opposition to Roe v. Wade; when the country was founded, abortion was legal and accessible up until "the quickening," the first moment when the baby could be felt moving. None of this "life begins at conception" crap.
This is easy as hell to dismiss. At the core of the foundation of this country are the founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It isn't unfair or inaccurate to suggest, I think, that these three documents provide insight into the mentality of the Founding Fathers. That is to say, if one wants to find the principles on which this country was founded, that's the first place one should look. If I want to look for Christian principles in the country's founding, for example, that's where I'd look.
While there are many tenets to Christian morality, at their core are the Ten Commandments (this isn't actually true in terms of Judaic law, but Jewish scholars tend not to be Christian. There are hundreds of commandments in the Torah, and the first ten are not regarded as more important than any of the others). Of course, there are five or six different versions of the Decalogue, so I'll go with St. Augustine's version, which most conservative churches observe.
1. I am the Lord your God... You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol...
That's pretty simple, right? The closest thing to a mention of properly worshipping God is in the Declaration, but all that says on the matter is to examine the "separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle" us, and declare that it is self-evident that we are "endowed by our Creator certain inalienable rights." While "God" and "Creator" are capitalized like proper nouns, it's worth remembering that it was written by one man, and that man was a deist (so the God and Creator to which he referred were unlikely to be the God of the Bible). In any case, in no way does this imply that any single person, or the nation as a whole, is bound to worship this Creator as dictated by the First Commandment.
2. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Blasphemy is protected by the First Amendment: 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.
It's actually double-protected, since outlawing blasphemy would not only abridge the freedom of speech, but would also respect an establishment of religion.
3. Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy...; you shall not do any work...
That's not mentioned in any of the three documents, for or against, but again, enforcing that would represent an establishment of religion (especially since not all religions have a Sabbath, and Christianity is the only Abrahamic tradition that considers it to be Sunday).
4. Honor your father and your mother...
It's a nice sentiment, but I don't see it anywhere in the founding documents. It has, by some scholars, been interpreted broader, with "father and mother" representing all those with rightful authority over you, including but not limited to your parents, God and your government. The European monarchy was believed to have the divine right of rule, yet the Declaration of Independence was a direct dishonoring of the tyrannical rule of King George. So literally, it's irrelevant, and more broadly, it's actually contradicted by the very existence of America.
5. You shall not kill.
7. Neither shall you steal.
These aren't really addressed by the founding documents, but let's be honest; they aren't Judeo-Christian principles any more than they are American -- these are societal rules as old as society itself. Every culture has some version of them and its own little collection of exceptions to them. In America, we worship fictional heroes like Robin Hood and Batman. We make movies with heroes like John Matrix and John Rambo and John McClain. The rules get circumvented and bent and avoided and the heroes stop being right because they do what's right and start being right because they're the heroes. The people of the US seem to perceive ourselves that way; we can wage pre-emptive wars absent a tangible or even perceptible threat, we can dismiss the entirety of the world community but demand their respect, we can be belligerent and smug and get away with it because we're... well, we're a Christian nation.
Bull.
6. Neither shall you commit adultery.
Like 5 and 7, 6 is prohibitive. In fact, all of the 10 Commandments (and hundreds of other commandments) are directive and mostly prohibitive. On the contrary, the founding documents are all based on the idea that people need to be free to make their own choices and their own mistakes. There aren't many prohibitive statements in the Constitution or Bill of Rights (directed at the citizenry, anyway; they're both concerned with curbing the authority of the government) -- treason is the only one I'm sure of without checking. While it's true there are Biblical statements that command the freedom of the individual be respected, there really aren't that many of them, and they kind of pale in comparison with all the orders issued regarding behavior, personal relationships, business and even thoughts. I think it's a little difficult to reconcile "don't eat shellfish because it's an abomination before the LORD" with "everybody deserves to be free." If I'm free, I have the freedom to screw up my marriage*.
8. Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.
The most common interpretation of this is a flat-out prohibition on lying. I don't read it that way, but most people think the fifth Commandment is "don't kill" rather than "don't murder." The Christians who influenced me growing up appear not to have had much of a gift for nuance.
Anyway, no; there is nothing about lying in the founding documents. Lying in court was a punishable offense by the law at the time, but the founding fathers didn't actually see much of a reason to change the British Colonial Laws under which the colonies were governed -- it was a good set of laws**, only undermined by the economic drain of sending all their taxes overseas. However, saying things that aren't true is not in direct opposition to the founding American principles. It's not inherently in line with them, either, but it's not explicitly prohibited (though there are a number of situations beyond perjury where untrue statements are not protected speech).
The more specific reading of the Commandment is word-for-word -- don't incriminate other people falsely. Somehow this Commandment got ignored during the Salem Witch Trials. There's an interesting piece here about bearing false witness (search the term on his site, actually; he writes about it occasionally and it's good stuff), but for me, I'm trying to compare it to America's founding principles. It correlates with the broader prohibition of lying, but that doesn't answer the issue to my satisfaction.
My first inclination is to bring up the courts again. After all, it's extremely relevant to bearing witness of any kind, and bearing false witness would logically undermine the court system, which exists to uphold the rest of the system. I'm sure there were cultures that had prohibitions on lying as suggested above, but this more nuanced position -- the prohibition of lying to get someone else in trouble -- may be the first uniquely Judeo-Christian value in the Decalogue. It may also be the first in which the Biblical value might have directly influenced the founding values (though this may also be covered by the British Colonial Law). If so, it's sad that it took eight most important rules to get to one that might seriously count as Christian influence in the US government rather than societal necessity.
9. Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife.
Since coveting is lust and adultery is sex, this is the same commandment as 6.
10. Neither shall you desire your neighbor's house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
George Carlin's answer to why this commandment is bullshit covers my answer of why it's not an American value:
This one is just plain fuckin' stupid. Coveting your neighbor's goods is what keeps the economy going! Your neighbor gets a vibrator that plays "o come o ye faithful", and you want one too! Coveting creates jobs, so leave it alone.
We're capitalists (sort of). We like money, we like owning stuff, and it's been that way ever since the Constitution was written -- the Bill of Rights, if you read it through, appears to want to add "and property" to the inalienable rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence.
This is obviously an oversimplification, but it addresses most of the salient points. The statement I quoted above, "founded on Christian principles" always makes me wonder, "which ones?" The only other major Christian principle I can come up with that they might be talking about is the Golden Rule (which, of course, is a pre-Christian, secular ethical concept), but again, I don't really see how that applies; the US was certainly not founded on the principle of "do unto others..."
Sure, the founders were predominantly Christian (though not as many as modern Christians would have you believe -- most of the ones whose names you know were deists), but they knew that religion's influence in government needed to be minimal.
* It's not obvious here, but I have poly friends, and I make a distinction between "adultery" and "extramarital sex."
** It's worth mentioning that the "strict constructionalist" interpretation of the Constitution, ostensibly the position that interprets it as the Founding Fathers intended it, ignores this fact when it states its opposition to Roe v. Wade; when the country was founded, abortion was legal and accessible up until "the quickening," the first moment when the baby could be felt moving. None of this "life begins at conception" crap.