Revisionists trying to distort Founders' view of religion

Last week's column on the Founders' view on the indispensability of religion provoked a large number of comments and e-mails. Some were thoughtful and some under cloak of anonymity were quite mean-spirited. A theme touched on by a number of these comments related to the purported "secular" nature of the Constitution and the Founders.

For example, Bob Ritter, founder and president of the Jefferson Madison Center for Religious Liberty, notes that "the Constitution is a wholly secular charter ... (and) religion is not essential at all for the Constitution's efficaciousness." Indeed, Ritter's Web site takes issue with "those who claim the United States is a Christian Nation or based on Christian principles." Another commenter states that "the First Amendment effectively says 'religion is irrelevant to government.' " Yet another comment says "the secular founding guys — James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams — won out over the religious founding guys — Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams and others. Our government was founded on secular (nonreligious) principles through and through."

All of us are inclined to view historical events and personalities through the prism of our own philosophy and ideology. This includes me. I have tried very carefully to understand why there is such a wide divergence of views over the principles on which our government was founded and, in particular, the views of the Founders on religion.

It strikes me that, in part, some of the confusion and hostility derives from trying to put the Founders squarely on ones' own team. For example, many Christians believe and find various quotations to support their view that the Founders were Christian and intended for this to be a Christian nation. On the other hand, those who believe this is a secular country and founded on secular principles find various quotes among the Founders to support that position. Indeed, it is possible, to read various comments of the Founders to support either of these propositions.

I believe if one carefully reads, in context, the original statements of many of the Founders, but particularly Jefferson and Madison, the fathers of religious freedom, one would find some surprising understandings. For example, when modern day readers use the word secular, it is probably more precise to use the word nonsectarian. Jefferson and Madison clearly had anxiety about establishing a church. In his three-volume "The Republic of Letters," chronicling the correspondence between Jefferson and Madison, James Morton Smith notes "both men favored the disestablishment of the Anglican church in (Virginia), and that Jefferson rejoiced in, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered."