T.J.

I know I’ve talked about the fact that the United States of America was not founded upon religion or even by Christians, but I wanted to take a moment here to talk more about Thomas Jefferson. He’s the one who came up with the “wall of separation” after all and the battle to keep it erected isn’t going away anytime soon.

Many people seem to be under the impression that the founding fathers were Christians and this nation is founded upon the Bible and Christian values. Or at least the Religious Right wants us all to think that. Jefferson, was a deist and at one point during his campaign was accused of being an infidel and atheist because of his different beliefs. I don’t think that overall it really matters, I just wanted people to be aware that Jefferson was not what most people would call a Christian.

While not godless, he is reported to have said something that really strikes through to me : “Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.” If on Judgement Day I turn out to be wrong, I like to think God would understand pursuit of knowledge and skepticism over being merely a sheep and believing everything I hear. Although, this rarely even occurs to me as I am fairly convinced there is no skyman.

Let’s get to one of my favorite things related to Jefferson. The wall. For me, it is one of my favorite things about this country. It gives us our secular state. Justice John Paul Stevens put it best:

“Whenever we remove a brick from the wall that was designed to separate religion and government, we increase the risk of religious strife and weaken the foundations of our democracy.”

I think that as a nation of mixed belief, we should maintain the best method fairness available and continue to not have a state religion. By keeping a wall of separation between religion and government, it keeps things fair for all.

Here are two quotes from Jefferson about his wall:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and State.

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg

The saddest thing is that we still haven’t fully reached the competition of this wall. Perhaps we have at some point, but it seems like nearly everyday somebody goes and tears it down a little. I don’t want my taxes funding a Catholic school and thanks to the wall, they usually don’t. Hopefully one day we won’t have to fight over it anymore and have a purely secular government. As far as I can see, religion has no place in the government.  I end this with a quote from my a favorite comedian, the late George Carlin.

I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.

 

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