Holy Terror, part 6: Constitutional values

On July 4, 1986 a gathering of 460 fundamentalist Christian leaders gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to sign their Manifesto for the Christian Church. Here are some key phrases from that document (though the text is quoted, these statements were not adjacent in the original, ellipses are by White):

The Bible is the only absolute, objective, final test... for all philosophies, books, values, actions, and plans...

Whatever statements or values are in opposition to the statements and values of the Bible err to the degree of that opposition.

The Bible States Reality for all Areas of Life and Thought... in the sphere of law, government, economics, business, education, arts and communication, medicine, psychology and science.

All theories and practices of these spheres of life are only true, right, and realistic to the degree that they agree with the Bible.

Those people or nations that live in opposition to biblical laws and commandments will sooner or later, be cursed and destroyed.

I look at that list and see a whole lot of dangerous stupidity. Sheesh, there are many places in which the Bible contradicts itself. In addition, we – including Fundies – have concluded that some laws of the Bible do not apply to modern society. The big one is polygamy. Then there is that "sooner or later" phrase in their prediction of doom. If America prospers for another thousand years before being destroyed, does that fit their definition of "later"? But previous posts in this series have dealt with how fundamentalists misinterpret the central message of the Bible, so I won't repeat it here. Yeah, I see dangerous stupidity.

In his book, Holy Terror, Lies the Christian Right Tells Us to Deny Gay Equality Mel White sees something more:

Treason.

Those who signed the Manifesto have declared their intention to replace the U.S. Constitution as the ultimate legal authority of the nation. It is this intention that is behind their work to "raise money, mobilize volunteers, win elections, get initiatives passed, and constitutions amended."

So what do we do about it?

White begins by laying out the progressive values that should guide us, both political and moral. First, the political, based on the Constitution.

* We value the Constitution as the bedrock of our democracy; therefore we will resist all efforts to put the Bible in its place.

When speaking White will hold up a copy of the Constitution and a Bible. He'll ask, "Which is more important?" Even progressives will frequently answer the Bible is more important. White responds (my ellipsis):

When it comes to guiding our democracy and running our government, the U.S. Constitution must always trump the Bible, because the Constitution protects our rights to disagree about what the Bible says. … The Constitution offers every citizen an umbrella of protection that will guarantee his or her right to read or not read the Bible,, to believe in God or to ignore God altogether, to attend or not attend church, synagogue, temple, or mosque.

And yes, attempts at the substitution have been tried. G.W. Bush was forced into proposing a Marriage Protection Amendment for the Constitution.

Make this value personal. Vow to deny support to any politician or preacher who quotes the Bible and not the Constitution as governing authority; who would withhold rights from anyone based in a verse from the Bible; who even hints at limiting the free exercise of faith or no faith at all; who wants to restrict freedom of speech, of assembly, or of petitioning the government. Keep a copy of the Constitution by your TV and judge all newsmakers by its standards.

* We value our religious freedom; therefore we will resist all efforts to make this a "Christian nation."

White highlights two reasons to oppose the claim that America is a Christian nation. The first is the replacement of the Constitution with the Bible as discussed above. The second is if this is a Christian nation that it become a duty to follow the Bible literally, which means declaring homosexuals as an abomination, worthy of death.

To make their claim Fundie leaders follow the most popular axiom of Joseph Goebbels: Repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it, though maintaining the lie requires repression of dissent. So our task is to repeat with equal frequency that America is founded on religious freedom.

Yes, Puritan leaders saw themselves as agents of Christ, but church members, Puritan and Anglican, were only 1 of 8 settlers. In addition, the Puritans established religious tyranny. We don't need that.

There is only one mention of "Nature's God" in the Declaration of Independence. There is no mention of God or Jesus in the Constitution or Federalist Papers (described as "working documents of the founding fathers"), There is no cross in our flag or money. The phrase "In God We Trust" wasn't added to our money until 1955. Many founding fathers were Deists, not Christians. In 1797 President John Adams, in a treaty with Tripoli, assures them that America is "not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion."

The Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom was written by the state's favorite son Thomas Jefferson. He warned against:

...the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time...

No, America is not a Christian nation, it is "also not a nation where Christians – or Americans of any other or no spiritual tradition – are asked to put their spiritual values on hold while they campaign, vote, initiate legislation, or hold office."

* We value the separation of church and state; therefore we will resist all efforts to bring down "the wall of separation."

Lots of Fundies are calling the separation of Church and State a fallacy, a myth, nonsense, an incorrect reading of the First Amendment. Nah, we don't want a theocracy, we just want our country back. Jerry Falwell said, "The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country." Yeah, their country, the rest of us just live here.

The piece of the First Amendment under discussion is, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The fundamentalists version is, "Congress shall make no law that threatens or undermines our religious beliefs or prohibits the free exercise of our absolute political and moral values."

We must use the real version of the Establishment Clause when there is talk of "faith-based" initiatives which reward Fundie churches and charities, when there is talk of funding abstinence-only sex education and denial of funding for AIDS research, when Fundies talk of a "holy" war, when religion is used as a reason to cancel environmental programs or international treaties, and when there are demands to amend the Constitution to uphold religious goals, such as the Marriage Protection Amendment.

There is also this phrase from Article VI of the Constitution: "… no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." Millions of Fundie viewers didn't object when Jerry Falwell called for the election of righteous men.

White has evidence that G.W. Bush violated this phrase when Harriet Miers was nominated to the Supreme Court. That came to light when James Dobson bragged that Bush had consulted with him before the nomination was announced and that Dobson had given his blessing. That revelation undermined her nomination, which is good. Alas, we got John Roberts instead. Was Dobson consulted? If so, he learned to keep his mouth shut.

It has been obvious for a long time (since the 1992 GOP convention publicly declared their anti-gay stance) that there is a religious test if a candidate wants to get elected as a GOP fiscal conservative. He must also say all the right things about being against abortion and against gay rights.

White reminds us of an important reason for keeping that wall between Church and State. Once it is down there would be other groups, such as Islamists wanting to institute Sharia law, itching to replace the Christian Fundies. When they deny our liberties, they deny their own.