< PREVIOUS ] [ 2004 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
America's founders tried to settle the issue in 1787;
Article 6 of the U.S. constitution states that no
religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to
any Office or public Trust under the United States.
But we conduct elections, and a candidate's religious beliefs become a public matter. This is nothing new; Thomas Jefferson's alleged atheism was a major issue in the presidential election of 1800.
Jefferson had written that It does me no injury for
my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or one God. It
neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
This
sensible observation angered the Rev. Timothy Dwight, a
Congregationalist clergyman and president of Yale
University. Dwight preached a fiery sermon on July 4, 1798
that was widely circulated:
Can serious and reflecting men look about them and
doubt that, if Jefferson is elected ... that those morals
which protect our lives from the knife of the assassin,
which guard the chastity of our wives and daughters from
seduction and violence, defend our property from plunder
and devastation and shield our religion from contempt and
profanation, will not be trampled upon?
Other ministers agreed that voting for Jefferson would
be no less than a rebellion against God,
and would
destroy religion, introduce immorality and loosen all
bonds against society.
A Federalist newspaper said the
issue was Shall I continue in allegiance to God -- and a
Religious President, or impiously declare for Jefferson --
and No God!!!
Somehow America's religious institutions survived two terms of Jefferson, who was not an atheist, but a deist. Americans generally prefer presidents who have some religion, but not too much.
For instance, his expressed belief in a Higher
Law
may have cost William Henry Seward the presidency.
Seward served as governor of New York, then in the U.S.
Senate. He was one of the founders of the Republican party
in the 1850s, and went on to perform capably as secretary
of state under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
Seward was a leading contender for the Presidential
nomination in 1860. Ten years earlier, in a Senate debate
over the extension of slavery, he said that There is a
higher law than the Constitution,
and that the
territory acquired from Mexico was part of the common
heritage of mankind, bestowed upon them by the Creator of
the universe. We are his stewards, and must so discharge
our trust as to secure, in the highest attainable degree,
their happiness.
Many critics said Seward should stick to the
Constitution, not Higher Laws.
The speech made him
look like an extremist when the Republicans wanted a
conciliatory candidate in 1860. Lincoln had pledged to
respect slavery where it was legal, and he got the
nomination.
This year, we see Roman Catholic archbishops, among them Charles Chaput of Denver, issuing statements that candidates who do not want abortion made illegal are in violation of church doctrine, and should therefore be refused communion -- that is, literally excommunicated.
It's his right to issue such statements, although we should remember that there are Colorado Catholics in public office who don't pay much attention to the archbishop of Denver, and they seem to thrive.
On Thanksgiving Day in 1994, J. Francis Stafford, then
the archbishop of Denver, issued a six-page pastoral letter
called The Heights of the Mountains are His: The
Development of God's Country.
Stafford warned that Just as it is possible for a
person to lose his or her soul through a lifetime of
indifference, so Colorado can lose its distinctiveness, its
soul, as a community by failing to pay attention to the
changes now taking place ...
More specifically, What we risk creating, then is a
theme-park 'alternative reality' for those who have the
money to purchase entrance. Around this Rocky Mountain
theme park will sprawl a growing buffer zone of the working
poor ... We cannot afford to stand by now as the culture of
the leisure colony, like the walled communities which
dominate so many American suburbs, takes its place.
Did Gov. Bill Owens, a Roman Catholic who was state treasurer then, leap to denounce upscale mountain suburbs and the lack of affordable housing in resort zones? Did he make it a campaign issue in 1998 or 2002?
If he did, it escaped my notice, and this didn't appear to matter a whit in these elections. Political managers may care, as with Seward, but when we normal citizens get into the voting booth, we don't pay much attention to clerics. After all, getting political guidance from a minister makes about as much sense as seeking moral guidance from a politician.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 2004 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >