If we as Liberals, Progressives and Moderates want to progress America we must rejoin the public discourse on faith. The fact is that faith is an enormous factor in setting the direction for the nation. Our Values, Attitudes, and Beliefs (VAB) are fundamentally shaped by our spirituality. Yes some components of our relationship with our Higher Power are private matters, yet our VAB and spiritual perspective directly impacts our civil values. Its silly to say that Leftists, Liberals, Progressives and Moderates should be silent in public about their values while the Conservatives and Rightists go to town. That would essentially be a unilateral disarmament that doesn't help anyone. We must enter the public market-place of ideas and assert that values like torture, violence and war don't represent us.
Politics and Religion: A Fireside Chat on President's Day Weekend 2/20/05
by Pastor Karen Siegfriedt
George Washington: He was not Saint George--the revisionist historians have convinced us of that. Yet there is ample evidence to show that religious faith was a deeply significant force in the life of the general who became our first President.
While some may consider religion a private matter only, George Washington saw it as more. For him it was a subject of demonstrated interest and public expression. As General of the Army he showed clearly that religious faith and military command can be joined. Indeed, for him there was a vital connection between the two.
Washington recognized the need for religion in the military and demanded chaplains for his troops. Roy J. Honeywell's History of the Chaplaincy of the United States Army traces the federal chaplaincy in this country from legislation enacted by the Continental Congress on 29 July 1775 in response to Washington's request that chaplains be provided for the Continental Army.1 Then, the chaplain's corps was augmented as a result of Washington's general orders of 9 July 1776, when the Army was quartered in New York City.
These orders directed that:
"The Colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure for chaplains accordingly, persons of good character and exemplary lives. To see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay them a suitable respect and attend carefully upon religions exercises. The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger. The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man will endeavor so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest rights and Liberties of his country."2
Not only was George Washington a man of religion, he was one who respected the religion of different faith groups. His magnanimity, even toward the enemy, was manifest during the early part of the Revolutionary War when he ordered Colonel Benedict Arnold to take command of a detachment of the Continental Army and move against Catholic Quebec. The first article of the instructions reads:
"You are immediately, on their march from Cambridge, to take command of the detachment of the Continental Army against Quebec and use all possible expedition as the winter season is now advancing and the success of this enterprise, under God, depends wholly upon the spirit with which it is pushed."10
And the 14th instruction reads:
"As the contempt of the religion of a country by ridiculing any of its ceremonies, or affronting its ministers or votaries, has been deeply resented, you are to be particularly careful to restrain every officer and soldier from such imprudence and folly, and to punish every instance of it. On the other hand, as far as lies in your power, you are to protect and support the free exercise of the religion of the country, and the undisturbed enjoyment of the rights of conscience in religious matters, with your utmost influence and authority."11
After the Colonies had won their independence, it was a matter of special pride to Washington that the American Republic guaranteed full religions liberty to all, especially to such persecuted groups as the Jews and the Quakers.
In a famous letter to the Hebrew congregation at Newport, Rhode Island, in August 1790, he wrote:
"It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that those who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it, on all occasions, their effectual support. . . . May the Father of Mercies scatter light and not darkness on our paths, and make us all, in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy."12
Abraham Lincoln: ...Yet although Lincoln was not a church member, he did ponder the eternal significance of his own circumstances, a personal life marked by tragedy (the early death of two sons) and difficulty (the occasional mental instability of his wife). And he took to heart the carnage of war over which he presided.
Whether it was from these experiences or from other sources, Lincoln's speeches and conversation revealed a spiritual perception far above the ordinary. It is one of the great ironies of the history of Christianity in America that the most profoundly religious analysis of the nation's deepest trauma came not from a clergyman or a theologian but from a politician who was self-taught in the ways of both God and humanity. The source of Lincoln's Christian perception will probably always remain a mystery, but the unusual depth of that perception none can doubt.
Nowhere was that depth more visible than in his Second Inaugural Address of March 1865:
"Both [North and South] read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes."
Even more to the point was his reply when a minister from the North told the president he "hoped the Lord is on our side." Responded Lincoln,
"I am not at all concerned about that. . . . But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."
Bill of Rights of the US Constitution
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Establishment Clause: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion ..."
The Establishment Clause has generally come to mean that government cannot authorize a church, cannot pass laws that aid or favor one religion over another, cannot pass laws that favor religious belief over non-belief, cannot force a person to profess a belief. In short, government must be neutral toward religion and cannot be entangled with any religion.
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression from government interference. See U.S. Const. Amend. I.
Freedom of expression consists of the rights to freedom of speech, press, assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the implied rights of association and belief. The Supreme Court interprets the extent of the protection afforded to these rights.
The First Amendment has been interpreted by the Court as applying to the entire federal government even though it is only expressly applicable to Congress. Furthermore, the Court has interpreted, the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as protecting the rights in the First Amendment from interference by state governments. See U.S. Const. amend. XIV.
Two clauses in the First Amendment guarantee freedom of religion. The establishment clause prohibits the government from passing legislation to establish an official religion or preferring one religion over another. It enforces the "separation of church and state". Some governmental activity related to religion has been declared constitutional by the Supreme Court. For example, providing bus transportation for parochial school students and the enforcement of "blue laws" is not prohibited. The free exercise clause prohibits the government, in most instances, from interfering with a persons practice of their religion.
The most basic component of freedom of expression is the right of freedom of speech. The right to freedom of speech allows individuals to express themselves without interference or constraint by the government. The Supreme Court requires the government to provide substantial justification for the interference with the right of free speech where it attempts to regulate the content of the speech. A less stringent test is applied for content-neutral legislation.
The Supreme Court has also recognized that the government may prohibit some speech that may cause a breach of the peace or cause violence. The right to free speech includes other mediums of expression that communicates a message.