Let’s honor America’s secular founding
After our festivities honoring Independence Day, we should pause to celebrate one true American invention: the world’s first secular Constitution. On July 4, 1776, as our Founders declared independence from the monarchy of King George III of England, they began a great and noble experiment. That experiment was to provide freedom of thought to our citizens.
Until the concept of “We the People” was established, most of the world’s rulers reigned hand-in-hand with priests and holy men.
This unholy alliance allowed emperors and kings to claim a monopoly on religion, which they used forcefully to control their subjects. They made threats of eternal damnation to justify crusades and punished religious minorities through inquisitions.
In the 18th century, as America was breaking from the king — and Church — of England, there was no major example of a society divorced from religion. Fortunately, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison and Thomas Paine — while far from perfect — were Enlightenment thinkers.
They adopted the first Constitution not predicated on a divinity. The document's only references to religion are exclusionary, such as there shall be no religious test for public office.
In 1791, the First Amendment was ratified to ensure that government officials may not use public office to promote their personal religion. “(The Constitution) gives the president no particle of spiritual jurisdiction,” wrote Alexander Hamilton.
“State and church will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together,” added James Madison.
And in his 1790 letter to the Touro Synagogue in Newport, R.I., George Washington wrote that the citizens of the United States “possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.”
Despite this clear directive from our founders, many mainstream religious groups and politicians have continually promoted the myth that America was founded as a “Judeo-Christian Nation.”
This does not reflect the intention of our Founders and it does not even reflect the demographics of our population. While in the early years Americans were overwhelmingly Protestant, with Catholics making up the second major demographic, much has changed in the nearly 250 years since.
A major shift away from religion in the millennial generation has led to 29 percent of Americans now identifying as having “no religion” according to Pew Research. This is 6 percentage points higher than it was five years ago, making secular Americans the largest single “religious denomination” in our country.
In Saratoga County where we live, 26 percent of the population identifies as religiously unaffiliated. In Albany County, the seat of New York's capital, the figure is 33 percent, according to PRRI Research.
I’m proud to count myself as one of the more than 75 million secular Americans who are not religious. Furthermore, I’m thankful for groups like the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which has been fighting to protect our cherished separation of church and state for more than four decades. FFRF has consistently won legal battles against state-imposed prayers in schools, religious monuments on public grounds, and religious interference in women’s health care decisions, which are again under attack.
Since our nation declared its independence, persecuted minorities from across the world have risked everything to arrive under the warm glow of the Statue of Liberty and contribute to the American experiment. This has led to a nation of people with great diversity in race, class, ethnicity, religion — and no religion as well.
I know this tradition of immigration personally. I was born in the USSR after my Polish parents — a Jewish father and Slavic mother, both agnostics — fled the Nazis. I later immigrated to the United States after meeting my husband.
Like our Founders, we too must pass the torch of secular values down to the next generation. To honor our uniquely secular Constitution, let’s reaffirm our commitment to keep religion out of government. Because there is no freedom of religion without a government that is free from religion.