Congress Shall Make No Law

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | April 6, 2024

The misinformation is ramping up as the next election approaches, and that means religious bigotry can’t be far behind, complete with nonsense about this being a “Christian nation.”

A former president, in what has to be one of the tackier moments in modern American political history, has sold his name—yes, a licensing fee was paid—to sell a Bible for $59.99. (You’d need to have actually read the book to fully appreciate how grotesquely offensive this is.) Oooh, and it comes with great American documents like the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, as if our founding and the Bible are somehow linked.

This is a path we’ve walked multiple times in the past and always for cynical political or financial gain. Calling the U.S. a Christian nation allows for the demonization of our non-Christian friends and neighbors who politicians want to make into villains simply to generate fear and raise campaign contributions.

Our founders went to some lengths to make sure this country was not religion-specific but was religion-tolerant. They put it in black and white, so it should be fairly easy for even politicians to understand.

Article IV of the U.S. Constitution says, “No religious test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” That seems pretty clear that religious beliefs, or lack thereof, are not required to serve or lead this country.

If that wasn’t quite obvious enough, the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights takes it a step further, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”

Okay, so we cannot establish a religious test for office seekers nor can Congress create any kind of law establishing or de-establishing any religion or how people exercise those religious beliefs.

It all sounds pretty clear, but just to make sure everyone understood, the Treaty of Tripoli, created to protect our shipping commerce in that part of the world, was signed by John Adams in 1796. Article 11 says, “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion...”

There is nothing wrong with Christianity, and neither our constitution nor our government is anti-Christian, nor is anyone waging a “war on Christianity” as some politicians love to claim. The reality is a lot simpler; this is a secular nation run by a secular government, and our religious preferences are practiced outside of that government.

According to the U.S. Religion Census of 2020. more than 60 percent of Americans describe themselves as Christians—about 210 million people. That leaves about 125 million who are not. But a nation that is majority Christian is not necessarily a Christian nation.

In fact, the U.S. is practically awash with religious variety. That census found 372 different religious bodies encompassing 350,000 congregations serving about 120 million people, and that doesn’t even include dozens of religious practices of indigenous peoples. All religions in this country are supposed to be tolerated if not valued and accepted under the law. (Yes, there are a handful of exceptions for murderous and/or suicidal cults.)

It’s not as if we haven’t seen efforts aplenty to make this some kind of sectarian government and country. We’re told a story of the Puritans who came here seeking relief from religious persecution at home. Well, sort of. They left England to avoid persecution but first made a stop in the Netherlands, which they found way too permissive and liberal for their particularly harsh form of Christianity. Arriving here, they set about undertaking their own persecution of anybody who didn’t believe as they did, which ultimately led to the truly dreadful Salem witch trials of 1692.

The Puritans, about as intolerant as people could be, thought “cleansing” their communities of witches could return them to the path of righteousness. They arrested more than 200 on the flimsiest of testimony, convicted 30, and executed 20—a cautionary tale about religious beliefs running governments. (Contrary to popular myth, we did not burn anyone at the stake; that was a European thing. Nor did we focus only on women. We preferred hanging and did so with 14 women and five men. The 20th victim, a man, was pressed to death under heavy boulders.)

The world is full of governments claiming religious endorsements of some kind. And nearly all are marked by oppression and violence against anyone believing differently. We have enough cynical, politician-fostered intolerance and division as it is—we don’t need more.

The United States is not now nor has it ever been a “Christian nation.” When politicians try to convince you this election cycle of that myth and suggest we reject other religions, we should, in fact, reject the politicians.