by Mike McCallister
American Reporter Correspondent
Kramnick, Isaac and R. Laurence Moore; "The Godless Constitution: The Case against Religious Correctness;" 1996, New York: W. W. Norton; 191 pages. index, bibliography $22.00 cloth
By almost any standard, folks in the United States are among the most religious on the planet. The numbers of professed Christians who attend church regularly are at all-time highs. Yet by many standards, the US fails miserably on many yardsticks, especially those which might measure morality. How did this come to pass?
The religious right has an answer: It all started when the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren began erecting a "wall of separation" between church and state when it outlawed prayer in school in 1962. From that moment on, this "Christian nation" has been on the road to hell.
In "The Godless Constitution," two Cornell University historians demonstrate how the above statements are not only false, but place blame on the wrong side of the church-state wall. R. Laurence Moore, a Christian (Protestant on one side of the family, Catholic on the other), is the religious historian in this tag team, and Isaac Kramnick, an Orthodox Jew, handles the political/philosophical side.
Moore and Kramnick suggest that, instead of the Warren Court being responsible for the breakdown in the "family values" the Christian Coalition is sworn to defend, perhaps the church itself should accept some responsibility. "The truth is that religion is far more evident in public life today than it was at any time during the 19th century," they note. Cases arrive at the Supreme Court "not because religion has been marginalized but because it is ubiquitous."
The role of Christianity in politics has been debated throughout the history of North America, Moore and Kramnick argue. The Constitution nearly wasn’t ratified because there was no mention of a supreme being. There have been periodic campaigns to put God in the document, both literally and through the contemporary battles over school prayer and public funding for church schools.
These skirmishes over the limits of church-state separation hardly compare with the uproar following the Constitution’s provisions preventing religious tests for federal office, the pair write. Some even claimed that the Constitution was a conspiracy to overthrow the "Christian Commonwealth." What goes around comes around, I guess.
The book is dedicated to Thomas Jefferson and Roger Williams, the real erectors of the "wall of separation," and they play major roles in this short treatise. Williams was the preacher too pure for the Puritans, who banished him from Massachusetts. In turn, Williams founded Rhode Island, which turned out to be a haven for religious dissidents. Moore and Kramnick argue that Williams believed "a civil state cannot reproduce the kingdom of God; if God had wanted human beings in Eden, He would have left them there."
Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom of 1786 declared "that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry." By the presidential election of 1800, preachers were declaring: "Should the infidel Jefferson be elected to the Presidency, the seal of death is that moment set on our holy religion."
"The Godless Constitution" offers a very cogent, though not very lively, argument against the "religious correctness" the authors see as a consistent stream of thought in American life. In contrast to the debunking style of the recent Rush Limbaugh expose "The Way Things Aren’t," Moore and Kramnick plod along with the long, passive sentences that academics are too often known for. At least, in deference to the general audience they seek, there aren’t pages of footnotes, just a "Note on Sources" at the end. Even the note is lacking a little. They say that most of the scholarship leading up to this condensed version is in their other books, but nowhere can one find a list!
One interesting argument they make compares the fundamentalist wing that dominates the contemporary Southtern Baptist Convention with the Baptists of the 18th century. Those Baptists were among the chief beneficiaries of separation, as they were the religious minority in virtually all the colonies. Jefferson’s election as president in 1800 moved them to big celebrations. The authors note that the early Baptists not only did not believe America to be a Christian nation, but that most Americans—not having been baptized as adults—were not Christian either.
Moore and Kramnick oppose complete removal of religion from the public square. They say that some school boards have gone a little too far in removing discussion of religion in classrooms, during and after school. Students should have as much right to argue about religion in school as they do any ohter burning topic. Their most essential claim, though, is that if these ministers really want to improve the moral climate of the country, the tools are already present. No nondenominational inoffensive prayer read every morning in the classroom will do the job, and politicians will do anything for a vote. The godless Constitution allows every minister the unlimited right to preach the gospel to anyone who will listen, live or over the airwaves. That’s what the Founders had in mind.