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America Does not Support or Oppose Any Religion
What's your reaction to President Obama's recent statements to the Muslim world that "the United States is not, and never will be, at war with Islam" and that "we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation"?
President Obama's statements are both completely accurate. This is not an officially "Christian" nation, whatever its demographics. And America neither supports nor opposes any particular religious faith.
An article by Jeffrey Gettleman in the New York Times, published on April 12, drew an interesting parallel between the problems we are facing today with Somali pirates, and the threat posed by the Barbary pirates two centuries ago. One of several treaties between the United States and the Barbary States included the following clause (not fully quoted in the article):
"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, tranquillity or religion of Mussulmen [Moslems]; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
The Treaty of Tripoli was signed in 1796 by President John Adams after Senate ratification. This offers a very good indication of how the Founders Fathers (Adams himself being one of the most prominent) conceived their nation and its Constitution. I have no doubt that President Obama, legal scholar that he is, consciously paraphrased this clause.
Even if some of the men who drafted the Consitution were not Christian, at least in an orthodox sense, most probably were. And there is no doubt that the nation as a whole was overwhelmingly Christian. Yet the framers were very careful to create a separation between religion and government. This does not mean that they placed no value in religious faith, especially insofar as it encouraged better citizenship. But recent history had taught them the twin dangers of allowing religion to encroach upon affairs of state, and of allowing government to interfere in matters of personal faith.
The result has been a happy one, and today we can thank whomever we please for this blessing: God, Providence, Fate, the Founding Fathers, our lucky stars, or...well, take your pick.
By
Kenneth E. Bowers
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April 14, 2009; 9:11 AM ET
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Posted by: wpc09 | April 17, 2009 10:31 AM
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We are, however, pushing a form of modern secularism, since that is the default position when we cannot promote any religion based on the Constitution. It is this default position that is antireligious that brings us into conflict with the religious of the world.
There is a conflict domestically that, for the most part, does not express itself violently. Our international conflict with the faithful of Islam seems to be a strung out affair.
Posted by: edbyronadams | April 17, 2009 9:01 AM
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Baha'is would be the first to agree that modern secularism is not a solid foundation upon which any nation can stand. I do not think Mr. Bowers is advocating secularism, but rather the broad spiritual foundations of human faith and values, equality before the law without establishing or privileging a particular religion, and the undoubted right of the individual to freedom of belief. In fact, that freedom has to exist in order for true faith to thrive.
In much of the Islamic world, governments and religious authorities have attempted to control what can be legitimately recognized as a religion. The Baha'is have suffered greatly under such control. Baha'is also suffered in the past under tyrannical governments that also favored a particular religion (Franco's Spain for instance).
America is not an officially Christian country in a legal sense - although it is a country with a majority Christian population and a culture deeply influenced by Christian faith. America is not "at war with Islam," a faith that Baha'is regard as one of the divinely revealed chapters of the Faith of God. The conflict the United States has is with radical extremists in some Muslim countries and with those who view the U.S. as the main support for certain oppressive governments. This opposition has an Islamic guise, but we are no more at war with Islam because of this fact than at war with Christianity because Timothy McVey followed radical racist Christian Identity ideas when blowing up the federal building in Oklahoma City.
If our faith is strong, there is nothing to fear from a country that does not paint enemies with a broad brush and does not establish a particular state or constitutional religious belief.