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I would not lump the Declaration with the Constitution in terms of
God-consciousness. The two times are radically different.
The Declaration was penned at a time when Americans believed that they were
God's chosen for the first successful republican form of government in
history. The optimism was Enlightenment-inspired and as much as hubris as
faith.
The Constitution was drafted after they learned they were an utter failure
at crafting government the first time around (the Articles). The Calvinist
instinct at the time to distrust all humans kicked in with some force, so the
focus was on how to limit and deter the power of those in positions of
power--not on how they were ascending to the greatest free government in
history. They no longer believed they were God's only chosen, but rather
fallible men who could do no better than to experiment with whatever structures
and people they had at hand. The horizon was no longer God's
horizon, but man's. The result is a Constitution that focuses on
structure and does not engage in God-talk.
In either case, it is impossible to argue this is a "Christian" country
with any plausibility. It's as much as Christian as it is Enlightenment, Greek,
and Roman, theology and philosophy, which is to say it is all of them put
together and more.
As for Franklin's suggestion regarding prayer, it was not so much politely
ignored as no one was willing to pay for the cost of having a cleric come into
their deliberations and deliver a prayer...
Marci
Had TJ wanted to use words like "the Great God of the Bible" or The Father, Son and Holy Ghost, or The Jehovah, he certainly could have. The language of the Declaration (and the utter lack of any mention of God in the Constitution) illustrates the general diestic flavor of the founding and the general view of the founding generation to avoid discussion of religion in their political development. It is not insignifcant, I think that none of the existing records of the federal convention contain any references to God or the Bible (much less the 10 C) and that when Franklin suggesting beginning the sessions with prayer, as a desperate attempt avoid a collapse of the Convention, he was politely ignored. |
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