The Christian Science Monitor
Commentary > Opinion
from the April 21, 2004 edition

On Ten Commandments bill, Christian Right has it wrong
By Frederick Clarkson
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0421/p09s01-coop.html
[excerpt]

Although Moore's movement has gained some political traction, its core
premise has a fundamental flaw: It aims to "restore" a Christian
constitution that never existed. And this presents challenges for Moore a=

his allies as they attempt to invoke the framers of the Constitution in
support of their contemporary notions of a Biblically based society.

Last August, for example, James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family,
rallied with Moore in front of the Alabama state courthouse.

"I checked yesterday with my research team," Dr. Dobson announced. "There
are only two references to religion in the Constitution." The first, from
the preamble, he said, refers to securing "the blessings of liberty,"
which, he asserted, "came from God" (although there is nothing in the
document to support that view.) The other was the First Amendment's
establishment clause that, he said, "has given such occasion for mischief
by the Supreme Court."

However, Dobson's researchers missed - or ignored - Article Six of the
Constitution. That's the one barring religious tests for public office and
set in motion disestablishment of the Christian churches that had served =

arbiters of colonial citizenship and government for 150 years.

Mainstream historian Gary Wills writes that the framers' major innovation
was "disestablishment."

"No other government in the history of the world," he writes, "had launch=

itself without the help of officially recognized gods and their state
connected ministers."

Christian Right historian Gary North agrees. The ratification of the
Constitution was a "judicial break with Christian America." Article Six
provided a "legal barrier to Christian theocracy" leading "directly to the
rise of religious pluralism," he declares in "Political Polytheism: The
Myth of Pluralism." Indeed, history shows that the framers of the
Constitution sought to establish religious equality among citizens and in
government. But, as Christian nationalists seek to eviscerate the capacity
of federal courts to protect the religious freedom and equality of all
Americans, we can expect that one of their main tactics and goals will
continue to be the revision of history itself.

=B7 Frederick Clarkson is the author of 'Eternal Hostility: The Struggle
Between Theocracy and Democracy.'


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You are invited to check out the following:

The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html

[and the discussion group for the above site listed below]

HRSepCnS =B7 Hampton Roads SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/

[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members]

For people in Hampton Roads you are also invited to join

NORFOLK/VA. B. SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE MEETUP GROUP
http://churchandstate.meetup.com/47/

Virginia Chapter Americans United for Separation of Church and State
http://au-va.org/

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. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why =

page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisne=

256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .

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