Paul Finkelman
Scarberry, Mark wrote:
There is, of course, the reference in Article VII to "the Year of our Lord." Maybe such a reference was thought sufficient to eliminate any implication that the new Constitution was anti-Christian without creating any basis for anyone to infer that the federal government had any power over religion.
Mark S. Scarberry
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu Sent: 1/30/2005 2:50 PM Subject: Re: God in the Constitution
In a message dated 1/30/2005 5:21:13 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
It seems to me that the inclusion or failure to include language acknowledging G-d in the U.S. Constitution has little to do with the level of religiousity in America at the time and a lot to do with the commitment of the framers to religious liberty and their recognion of
the havoc that governmental connections to religion might produce
I find this persuasive, but not completely so. There's a wide gap, in my estimation, between the "recognition of the havoc that governmental connections to religion might produce" and avoiding any mention of the community's connection to (and dependence upon) divine authority in any way at all. Indeed, is it unimaginable that suitable language could not been formulated to express both the commitment to religious liberty (in the original document) and "the recognition of the havoc that governmental connections to religion might produce"?
That said, Alan's post raises a potentially more interesting
question, namely, just how do we assess the level of religiosity of the founding generation. There
are actually two problems here: (1) How do we assess the level of
religiosity of any community at any time at all? Isn't religiosity one
of those systematically complex attitudes, motives, and reasons that
while not precluding assessment in principle, is notoriously difficult
to assess? I recall hearing that in colonial Virginia, Jews were
required to attend Sunday Church services. (I can't vouch for the truth
of this recollection.) If so, can that be a factor in assessing the
level of religiosity among the population. I doubt it. And how often do
people engage in the most apparent forms of expressing religiosity, for
example, attending religious services, and in the modern era answering a
pollster by saying one is religious, even very religious, when one is
not? Justified or not our culture has embraced religious devotion as an
indication that one is a good person (although not of course to the same
degree throughout our history). Just how truly devotional Americans are
seems quite elusive. (2) I think there are special problems arising when
making this assessment of a past community. But I'm not a historian and
will say no more about this now.
I think there are just some aspects of human society that are too complex to sift through with any reliability, especially when this requires putting aside one's own substantive normative views on the issue. But perhaps this is too far afield from the purpose of this List.
My own hunch is that explaining the omission of divine authority in the Constitution says something important about the founding generation. But I'm not sure that our usual explanations get to the heart of the matter. But, as I said, that's just my hunch.
Bobby
Robert Justin Lipkin
Professor of Law
Widener University School of Law
Delaware
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-- Paul Finkelman Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law University of Tulsa College of Law 3120 East 4th Place Tulsa, OK 74104-3189
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