Our Secular Constitution

By Neil Nissenbaum

Religionists claiming America a "Christian" nation find our secular
Constitution a hard pill to swallow. Such is the case with John
Eidsmoe's apologist tome Christianity and the Constitution: The Faith
Of Our Founding Fathers (Baker Book House, 1987). Eidsmoe attempts to
prove the Constitution a Christian document, though lamenting "how can
the Constitution be considered a Christian document when it doesn't
mention the Lord Jesus Christ (except for the closing reference to the
'Year of Our Lord, 1787'), doesn't refer to the Bible, and doesn't even
mention God? The Constitution does not mention God the Father, or his
Son Jesus Christ any other place."

That the founding fathers intended the Constitution to be secular is
beyond question; motions to include such religious references at the
Constitutional Convention were voted down. [The Genuine Information
Relative to the Proceedings Lately Held At Philadelphia ... , pamphlet
by Luther Martin, 1788, Maryland delegate who left the Convention.]

The Constitution's secularism was duly noted by colonial clergy. John
M. Mason, D.D. (The Complete Works of ...  1850, four volumes), whose
1793 sermon addressed the "very Constitution which the singular
goodness of God enabled us to establish, does not so much as recognize
his being! ... From the Constitution of the United States, it is
impossible to ascertain what God we worship; or whether we own a God at
all ... Should the citizens of America be as irreligious as her
Constitution, we should have reason to tremble ..."

Rev. Doctor Wilson, in an 1831 sermon [Were The Founding Fathers Pious
Angels And Plaster Saints?, by Harry Elmer Barnes, Little Blue Book
No.  1586, Haldeman-Julius Publ., Girard, Kansas, circa 1930],
protested that it almost seemed as though God had been deliberately
excluded from the origins of our government: "... the Constitution was
framed and God was neglected. He was not merely forgotten. He was
absolutely voted out of the Constitution. The proceedings, as published
by Thompson, the secretary, and the history of the day, show that the
question was gravely debated whether God should be in the Constitution
or not, and after a solemn debate he was deliberately voted out of it
... There is not only in the theory of our government no recognition of
God's laws and sovereignty, but its practical operation, its
administration, has been conformable to its theory."

Additionally, there have been hundreds of attempts to amend the
Constitution to include the Bible, God, Jesus, and Christianity. All
have failed. This fact alone proves the Constitution secular, otherwise
the amendments would have been unnecessary.

The columnist is a Foundation member from North Carolina.


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This article is reprinted (with permission) from the May
1993 issue of Freethought Today, bulletin of the Freedom
From Religion Foundation.

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