Dear Editor,
On March 14, B.J. Paschal wrote about religion and the American government, noting the "paradox" of American life: People come to America to practice their faiths in peace and freedom, but this tradition ignores our "secular" Constitution. Interestingly, this paradox only exists so long as the idea of a secular Constitution is embraced. One has to wonder if the problem is not, as Paschal suggests, that the Christian Right is ignorant but rather the claim that the constitution is a secular document.
The faith of the Founding Fathers is an idea that many want to see buried beneath the court decision of 1947 and 1979, but the claims that the Constitution is a secular document simply are not correct. James Madison noted it was impossible NOT to "perceive in it (the Constitution) a finger of the Almighty hand," while John Adams claimed that, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people."
The tragedy is that such a departure from the original intent of the Constitution was addressed by the Founders: "I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate constitution." (James Madison) Thus the paradox to which Paschal refers is seen for what it truly is: a farce.
Paschal goes on to describe the "human tendency to seek facts that are congruent with our prior beliefs." One has to wonder about Paschal's prior beliefs, when he so childishly dismisses opposition as rubbish. As Thomas Jefferson noted, "God who gave us life gave us liberty, and can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis?" The Founders realized that if you removed God from the picture that left only a document written by men, a document that can be changed and reinterpreted. That people would put their trust in such uncertainty is a truly frightening thought.
Andrew Balke
senior
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