Last summer, in the wake of Senator Barack Obama's speech regarding the role of religion in public life, I wrote several essays pointing out that Senator Obama and Jim Wallis' author of God's Politics, had internalized and expressed one of the central frames of the religious right, namely that "secularists" or a number of variants (secular humanists, secular fundamentalists, etc) were somehow oppressing Christians (or religion, or people of faith, etc), or driving religious people "out of the public square." They offered no evidence for this. It was, and is, a false and unsubstantiated frame designed by the religious right to argue that traditional efforts to advance the rights of conscience of all citizens against appropriation of governments resources for prostelyzation and other misuses of taxpayer resources and public property to advance religious views were somehow in opposition to religion in general or Christianity in particular.
Now comes Democratic political consultant Mara Vanderslice who told The New York Times recently that Democrats should not use the phrase separation of church and state because it is not in the Constitution and because "That language says to people that you don't want there to be a role for religion in our public life" I wrote at the time that this argument is very close to, even indistinguishable from the argument advanced by the religious right. I also noted that she was not the only one saying uch things in the Democratic Party. That said, I think candidates doing smart forms of "religious outreach is a good thing and, I might add, somethihg that has never been alien to the Democratic Party or to liberals in general. That some Democrats are now more publicly connecting their religious values with their politics is fine with me. Doing it appropriately and well will be the ongoing trick.
Meanwhile, to underscore how fuzzy this area can get as religious right talking points bleed into the Conventional Wisdom, here is a news and public affairs quiz!
Below I have selected twenty quotes from Americans active in public life at various levels from the pool of names listed below. (Hint: There is not a quote from every person in the pool. Heh.) Each answer is worth 5 points. Answers (plus a bonus question!) are provided in comments. Good Luck! Have fun!
Sen. Sam Brownback - R-KS
George W. Bush - whatever
Sen Robert Byrd - D-WV
Sen Bob Casey - D-PA
James Dobson - head of Focus on the Family
Jerry Falwell - founder Moral Majority
Joseph Farrah - founder World Net Daily (a religious right news outlet
Katherine Harris - former GOP Florida Secretary of State
Sen. James Inhofe - R-OK
D. James Kennedy - Televangelist, Coral Ridge Ministries
Gordon Liddy - Watergate felon and radio talk show host
Tim LaHaye - co-founder, Moral Majority
Sen: Joe Leiberman - (Leiberman-CT)
David Limbaugh - religious right author; brother of Rush
Mike McCurry - White House Press Sectretary, Clinton administration
Roy Moore - Ex Chief Justice, Alabama Sumpreme Court
Eric Sapp - Sr. Partner, Common Good Strategies
Francis Schaeffer - conservative evangelical author and theorist
Jim Towey - Direct White House office of Faith Based Initiative
Mara Vanderslice - President, Commn Good Strategies
Jim Wallis - progresive evangelical author of God's Politics
TAKE THE QUIZ!
- The Left is dominated by secular humanists who do not believe in God and have advocated for a misinterpretation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution's prohibition against the establishment of religion by the federal government as a "wall separating church and state." No where in the Constitution is there any mention of a wall separating church and state.
1) Gordon Liddy, Jim Wallis, Eric Sapp, Jerry Falwell
2) Separation of church and state has long been the battle cry of civil libertarians wishing to purge our glorious Christian heritage from our nation's history. Of course, the term never once appears in our constitution and is a modern fabrication of discrimination.
2) Jerry Falwell, Eric Sapp, Mike McCurry, D. James Kennedy
3) ...we have to have elected officials in government and we have to have the faithful in government and over time, that lie we have been told, the separation of church and state, people have internalized, thinking that they needed to avoid politics and that is so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers. And if we are the ones not actively involved in electing those godly men and women and if people aren’t involved in helping godly men in getting elected than we’re going to have a nation of secular laws. That’s not what our founding fathers intended and that’s certainly isn’t what God intended.
3) George Bush, Katherine Harris, Joe Leiberman, Jim Wallis
4) Because of the near worship of the "separation of church and state" - the shadowy phrase culled from a letter written by President Thomas Jefferson to a group of Baptists - our nation is racing headlong toward existence in a Godless public square.
4) George Bush, Jerry Falwell, Joe Leiberman, Mara Vanderslice
5) The line between church and state is an important one," ...[ but] "we have gone far beyond what the Framers ever imagined in separating the two. . . . We have practically banished religious values and religious institutions from the public square.
5) George Bush, Joe Leiberman, Jerry Falwell, Francis Schaefer
6) I believe in a separation of church and state, but I do not believe in a removal of faith from the public square," he told the prisoners. "Our motto of our land is, 'In God We Trust."'
6) Sam Brownback, George Bush, Robert Byrd, Bob Casey
7) The activists from the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and other extremist groups are - consciously or unconsciously - driving people of faith from the public square.
7) Joseph Farrah, Tim LaHaye, Eric Sapp, Jim Wallis
8) We get trapped very often saying that there's separation of church and state in America. There is, but there was no separation of faith and politics in the very founders who wrote it in the Constitution.
8) George Bush, Bob Casey, Mike McCurry, James Towey
9) In modern law... many use "separation of church and state" with the intent to separate God, moral values and Christian principles from the state. It means none of that... The way people use 'separation of church and state' is not historically or legally accurate. What it does mean is that the state can't interfere with the church and can't interfere with our mode of worship and our articles of faith. And that's what 'separation of church and state' means.
9) George Bush, Jerry Falwell, Roy Moore, Eric Sapp
10)I don't think the sky is falling or we've lost all our religious freedom--but I think Christians are being scrubbed away from the public square, Christian religious liberty is being suppressed, and Christians are being impugned by people for whom tolerance is the highest virtue.... People will suppress our religious liberty under the separation of church and state language, while they promote the concept of the state endorsing secular humanist values or those of other major religions. They demand tolerance from everyone, but they are willing to give none toward Christians.
10) David Limbaugh, Jim Wallis, Eric Sapp, Jerry Falwell
11) Rather than "separation of church and state," our Constitution has an "Establishment and Free Exercise Clause," and that's the language Democrats should use to describe the legal principles that define the interaction of church and state in this country.
Our Constitution guarantees everyone a right to freely exercise their religion and forbids the state from establishing a single religion. On the other hand, the "separation" language used by many Democrats implies the complete exclusion of faith from the public square, thereby creating restrictions on the free exercise of religion.
11) George Bush, James Inhofe, Roy Moore, Eric Sapp
12) Everyone today seems to think the U.S. Constitution expressly provides for separation of church and state. I guess you could ask any 10 people if that is not so and I will bet you most of them will say, well, sure that is so. And some would point out that is in the First Amendment. Wrong. Read it. It says:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
Where is the word ``separate''? Where are the words ``church'' and ``state''? They are not there; never have been, never intended to be.... Clearly their intent was to prohibit a single denomination in exclusion of all others, whether it was anglican or Catholic or some other.
12) James Inhofe, Mike McCurry, Eric Sapp, Mara Vanderslice
13) In case anyone doesn't know, "separation of church and state" is not in the Constitution. It shouldn't be in our vocabulary as Democrats either.... it is often misused by secularists to attack any use of faith in the public sphere.... Our Constitution guarantees everyone a right to freely exercise their religion and forbids the state from establishing a single religion. On the other hand, the "separation" language used by many Democrats implies the complete exclusion of faith from the public square, thereby creating restrictions on the free exercise of religion.
13) Bob Casey, Mike McCurry, Joe Leiberman, Eric Sapp
14)The separation of church and state is not in the Constitution.... It's not in the Bill of Rights. It's not anywhere in a foundational document. The only place where the so-called "wall of separation" was mentioned was in a letter written by (Thomas) Jefferson to a friend. That's the only place. It has been picked up and made to be something it was never intended to be.
14) George Bush, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Gordon Liddy
15)The truth is, there is no 'wall of separation' in the Constitution, unless it is a wall intended by the Founding Fathers to keep the civil government totally out of the church.
15) Robert Byrd, Tim LaHaye, Francis Schaefer, Mara Vanderslice
16) The words 'separation of church and state' are not found in the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence or the Articles of Confederation or any document of our history... The First Amendment to our Constitution basically embodies a concept of separation -- meaning that the state should stay out of the affairs of the church and of the relationship that men have with their God.
16) Bob Casey, D. James Kennedy, Roy Moore, Mara Vanderslice
17) Today, there are new fundamentalists in the land. These are the "secular fundamentalists," many of whom attack all political figures who dare to speak from their religious convictions. From the Anti-Defamation League, to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, to the ACLU and some of the political Left's most religion fearing publications, a cry of alarm has gone up in response to anyone who has the audacity to be religious in public. These secular skeptics often display amazing lapse of historical memory when they suggest that religious language in politics is contrary to the "American Ideal."
17) James Dobson, James Inhofe, Mara Vanderslice, Jim Wallis
18) Today the separation of church and state in America is used to silence the church. When Christians speak out on issues, the hue and cry from the humanist state and media is that Christians, and all religions, are prohibited from speaking since there is a separation of church and state. The way the concept is used today is totally reversed from the original intent...
18) Katherine Harris, Francis Schaeffer, Mara Vanderslice, Jim Wallis
19) If we are committed and involved in taking back the nation for Christian moral values, and if we are willing to risk the scorn of the secular media and the bureaucracy that stand against us, there is no doubt we can witness the dismantling of not just the Berlin Wall but the even more diabolical 'wall of separation' that has led to increasing secularization, godlessness, immorality, and corruption in our country.
19) Robert Byrd, D. James Kennedy, Gordon Liddy, Jim Wallis
20) President Bush does not want to proselytize or fund religion. We're talking about things like job training and substance abuse prevention, and opening up to small groups that have been shut [out] by the ACLU and a radical fringe that wants an extreme separation of church and state.
20) James Inhofe, Joe Leiberman, Jim Towey, Jim Wallis