[Chapter 9, post #6]
We have one Constitution, but two views of the meaning of the Establishment
Clause. One view of the United States is
that it is a Secular Nation and requires separation of church and state.[1]
The four dissenting justices in Van Orden were of this view.[2] The other view – that the United States is a Christian Nation – is manifest in the arguments by four of the justices in the Van Orden majority.[3] One of the Christian Nation-type arguments put forth in Chief Justice Rehnquist’s plurality opinion was: “Our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.”[4]
The statement is absurd. The Chief Justice did not provide any explanation or proof to support this statement. On the other hand, tens of millions of Americans do not even believe in a supreme being – surely they have no reliance on a supreme being nor believe that our institutions need a guiding hand.
However, the definitive rebuttal to the Chief Justice's argument is the Preamble of the Constitution. It reads: “We the People of the United States . . . do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”[5] Clearly, our institutions depend upon the will of the people for the source their powers and purposes. Moreover, neither “God” nor “Supreme Being” is mentioned once in the Constitution nor are any governmental powers vested in a religious establishment. The indisputable fact, therefore, is that the United States of America is a Secular Nation whose governmental institutions do not presuppose the existence of a supreme being.
Unfortunately, Myth #4 is but another example of the Chief Justice’s plurality opinion being littered with false Christian Apologetic arguments. The false argument is not harmless. To the contrary, Thomas Van Orden lost his case based on this and other false arguments made by the Van Orden majority.
[1] This was the view of President James Madison
who proposed the Bill of Rights in 1789 while serving in the House of
Representatives. It was also the view of President Thomas Jefferson who wrote
to the Danbury (Connecticut) Baptists: “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 &
State.” January 1, 1802. Letter available at http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpre.html.
[2]
Justices Stevens, Ginsburg, O’Connor and Souter.
[3] Justices Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas joined Chief
Justice Rehnquist’s plurality opinion. Justice
Breyer, the fifth justice in the majority, concurred in the judgment.
[4] Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306, 313 (1952): "We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being."
No comments:
Post a Comment