In post-1980 America, society has been torn apart by religious zealots demanding special treatment in the name of “religious liberty.” They have justified their unconstitutional claims of unrestrained “religious liberty” by attempting to rewrite American history and law. This has been done with the usual far right technique of plausible lies, twisting and taking out of context words, and making up things never said.
Below are some of the historical true facts there prove the zealots to be frauds and liars.
Above all, in America, there is this one central question: Should a church you DON’T ATTEND be able
to impact YOUR life in any way? Should this church[s] be able to put its particular dogma into law
that prohibited YOU from doing life’s normal functions on YOUR terms?
The Founding Fathers’ generation said “NO,” absolutely not. YOU can judge for yourself>
1] North Carolina state constitution, 1776
Article XXXI – “That no clergyman, or preacher of the gospel, of any denomination, shall be capable of being a member of either the Senate, House of Commons, or Council of State, while he continues ..pastoral function.”
Article XXXIV – There shall be no establishment of anyone religious church or denomination in this state, in preference to any other, neither shall any person, on any pretense whatsoever, be compelled to attend any place of worship contrary to his own faith or judgment, nor be obliged to pay, for the purchase of any glebe, or the building of any house of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry…”
note: this is taken from Edwin Gaustad’s “Faith of the Founders, pages 134-145; note also that 8 states prohibited religious ministers from political activity and 4 prohibited a religious test for office]
2] On October 16, 1776, “The Ten Thousand Name Petition” was presented to the Virginia Assembly. Organized mostly by Baptists, “It called for the church of England’s disestablishment in the Virginia colony and breaking the “yoke” of religious oppression.” [“Church & State,” December, 2020, page 21]
3] Article VI of the Constitution: “…but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
4] The “Treaty of Tripoli,” signed in Tripoli November 4, 1796, and again at Algiers January 3, 1797, Article 11:
“As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, – as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims]…it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing….”
The treaty was negotiated by the Washington administration, endorsed by the Adams administration, read aloud in the U.S. Senate. The Senate ratified the Treaty of Tripoli unanimously, without debate – June 7, 1797.
the above from: “Church & State,” March, 2021, page 7]
5] No Bibles were used for inauguration ceremonies for presidents Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson. President J.Q. Adams swore his oath on a law book. President Pierce affirmed, rather than swore the oath, didn’t use a Bible in 1853. [the above from “Church & State,” January, 2021, page 12]
6] Several of the original 13 states had an “established church<: by 1830 – all had eliminated them.
7] In his near-definitive “The Establishment Clause Religion and the First Amendment<; Leonard Levy mentions the emphatic efforts of two highly respected and influential Baptist ministers in the 1770s and 1780s , John Leland and Isaac Backus, and their successful advocacy for separation of church and state. [pages 111, 112] Most of the book is a documented refutation of any and all claims seeking to undermine the Founders determination to achieve strict separation of church and state. Chapter 5, “The Nonpreferentialists” is a robust criticism of those “..quick to rely on a few historical facts which, yanked out of context..” seem to offer “proof” for false claims. On page XII, Levy says former Chief Justice Rehnquist “..flunked history..” in a 1985 opinion.
8] In his “Blasphemy How the Religious Right is Hijacking Our Declaration of Independence,” Alan Dershowitz accuses the Religious Right’s Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Alan Keyes, and others of repeated false claims. And reveals the motive behind “this mendacity: if the Religious Right can convince enough gullible Americans that the United States was founded as a religious nation, they can require religious control of public schools, federal funding of churches and church-based programs, religious test for elected and appointed officials, and much more.”
9] Garrett Epps’ “Wrong and Dangerous Ten Right-Wing Myths About Our Constitution,” includes Chapter Four’ “The constitution doesn’t Separate church and State.” “The attack on separation involves twisting words and reading history backward, and involves making some inconvenient parts..disappear. Most ardently espoused by loud foes of “big government,” the attack aims to place that big government in charge of American’s spiritual lives.’ [58] The term “wall of separation began in 1644, with Baptist theologian Roger Williams [driven out of Massachusetts] [59]
Epps attacks religious right favored “historian” David Barton as “..more than a crackpot, he is a charlatan..” throwing dust in reader’s eyes. [61] “The Founding generation’s opinions on religion cover a wide span, running all the way from orthodoxy to almost total infidelity. The First Amendment protected all these opinions.” [64]
10] Andrew Seidel’s “The Founding Myth Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American,” states: “The Declaration of Independence is an anti-Christian document with snippets of religious-sounding language as window dressing. If Jefferson and the other revolutionaries had been devout Christians, they never would have rebelled, the Declaration would never have been written, and America’s political relationship to the United Kingdom today would resemble Canada’s. The Christian bible stands directly opposed to the Declaration’s central ideas, including that it is “the Right of the People to alter or to abolish [their government], and to institute a new Government.” See Paul’s letter to the Romans.
“Christian nationalism is not solely about religion. It is an unholy alliance, an incestuous marriage of conservative politics and conservative Christianity. [see the highly secretive, powerful “Council for National Policy’ – page 8]
“Project Blitz encapsulates the problem Christian nationalism poses. First, it seeks to alter our history, values, and national identity. Then it codifies Christian privilege in the law, favoring Christians above all others. Finally, it legally disfavors the nonreligious, non-Christians, and minorities such as the LGBTQ community…” [page 6]
Part II – “United States v. The Bible” and Part III – “The Ten Commandments v. the Constitution” present the case.
11] Randall Balmer’s “Thy Kingdom Come How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America An Evangelical’s Lament” contains this: “I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.” Billy Graham, “Parade,” 1981 And this:
“I”m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in “A,” “B,” “C,” and “D.” Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?” Barry Goldwater, 1964
“I write as a jilted lover. The evangelical faith that nurtured me as a child and sustains me as an adult has been hijacked by right-wing zealots who have distorted the gospel of Jesus Christ, defaulted on the noble legacy of 19th century evangelical activism, and failed to appreciate the genius of the First Amendment….When they do quote the Bible, they wrench passages out of context and offer pinched, literalistic interpretations……The effect of this right-wing takeover has been a poisoning of public discourse and a distortion of the faith.” [IX]
12] Erwin Chemerinsky’s “The Conservative Assault On the Constitution” states: “..to understand what conservatives have accomplished it is necessary to look beyond the Supreme Court and beyond the judiciary. The assault on the Constitution is the result of a concerted effort by conservatives to alter foundational constitutional principles. The focus needs to be..on policies developed during the presidencies of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush, and Bush…..Young lawyers who served in the Reagan administration and were deeply committed to its conservative agenda, such as John Roberts and Samuel Alito, came to be Supreme Court justices. It is a mistake to see the policies of the Bush administration or the Roberts Court in isolation from a larger conservative movement that has sought to alter, and in many areas succeeded in altering, basic precepts of constitutional law.” [29-30] “Four justices – Rehnquist, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas – repeatedly had said that they rejected the notion of a separation of church and state.” [113]
Chapter 3 is “Dismantling the Wall Separating Church and State.”
13] Internationally known and respected Baptist minister Charles Kimball”s “When Religion Becomes Evil” provides “The Five Warning Signs of Corruption in Religion: absolute truth claims, blind obedience, establishing the “ideal” time, the end justifies any means, declaring holy war.”
“It is somewhat trite, but nevertheless sadly true, to say that more wars have been waged, more people killed, and these days more evil perpetrated in the name of religion than by any other institutional force in human history.” [1]
“Christians who take the Bible literally are either ignorant or self-deluded. No one takes the Bible literally.” [57]
“It is important to remember that freedom from religion is a corollary to freedom of religion.” [93-94]
“Christian reconstructionists in America are only one step removed from their counterparts with a concrete, divinely ordained plan for an Islamic state or the reconstituted, expanded biblical state of Israel. The gap begins to close when the agenda includes denigration of Islam or direct action against abortion clinics.” [121]
14] Damon Linker’s “The Theocons Secular America Under Siege” states; “THeoconism teaches that a secular society is both undesirable and unsustainable…the United States has been a thoroughly Christian nation…the liberal and secular drift of American culture since the 1960s is the result of..liberal and secular elites…to impose their corrupt views..through undemocratic means [..the courts]…consequences..are a sex-saturated popular culture..collapse of..important social institutions [..traditional marriage]..separation of law from religiously based moral principles.. a “culture of death]……; the solution..is to bring ..America [back] into line with ..moral strictures of biblical religion..” [4]
15] The most powerful and distressing part of Katherine Stewart’s “The Power Worshippers…Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism” is pages 235-247 – the case histories of several people victimized by being under the control of fundamentalist religion controlled health care institutions: “Controlling Bodies: What “Religious Liberty” Looks Like from the Stretcher.” Denied medication, one woman gave birth to a baby without a brain.One woman had her water break prematurely. Testing revealed the fetus had no chance of survival – but the hospital denied her relief for 5 weeks. A similar case also occurred – denial until on the 4th trip – her body began delivering the products in front of an administrator filling out discharge paperwork- which “qualified” her for proper medical help!!!!
A 19-year old came to an emergency room for help with her miscarriage – denied twice, with a dead baby and a fever, the hospital waited until her blood pressure was low and she was septic before helping her.
Another woman, with a dead 2nd child went to a pharmacy for a relieving prescription from her doctor – the pharmacist refused to fill it – as she stood in line with her child and 5 customers who heard everything – denied.
A Washington state man, in hospice care because he was dying from brain cancer, asked for information on legal medically assisted death – it was denied. So, he got a gun – and blew his brains out in a bathtub – traumatizing the nurses.
Stewart herself started bleeding at 13 weeks of her second pregnancy. Taken by ambulance to an emergency ward with low blood pressure… “I was left to hemorrhage alone. On several occasions hospital attendants came by my blood-soaked sheets, but no one would touch me.” One doctor got angry nd walked away. After going into shock and losing “nearly 40% of my blood” they gave her the required care.
16] Pages 219-245 of Sarah Posner’s “Unholy Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump,” detail the massive extent of contacts between American far right people and far right people in Eastern Europe and Russia. One could draw a conclusion that the Americans were deliberately sabotaging America and democracy world-wide. One far right strategist visited an Eastern Europe authoritarian and planned his successful election strategy. An elected Republican Representative is called a “Putin ally.” Hungarian lobbyists are working Congress with the help of a former Republican Representative. A big part of all this is religion and “family issues.”
Pages 246-258 discuss “The Assault on Reality,” emphasizing the support Trump got from the religious right base, and significantly “From a prodigious infrastructure decades in the making, including networks of churches, advocacy organizations, charismatic televangelists, and Christian media……..In the Trump presidency, Christian right leaders routinely boast that they attend high-level meetings, and that the White House seeks their counsel on important matters of policy, from religious freedom to prison reform to Israel. these leaders….have become accomplices in Trump’s assault on the truth….Trump has consistently used these Christian right supporters as a shield against news coverage that exposes his wrongdoing.”
17] David Cohen and Krysten Connon”s “Living in the Crosshairs The Untold Stories of Anti-Abortion Terrorism” details how people are targeted – at home, at work, in community spaces, and on-line. Not just providers, but also families, neighbors, and friends. Chapter l – provides “Seven Stories of Targeted Harassment.” Chapter 7 – provides “Six Stories of Law and Targeted Harassment.”
Is this partial list of information enough? Should a church you don’t attend impact your life?
With Justice For All 