No foundation there

Before a Ten Commandments monument was re-installed on the Capitol grounds, Rep. Jason Rapert wrote: “We are happy to have made this all possible for the citizens of Arkansas as they honor one of the historical and moral foundations of American law—the Ten Commandments.”

That may have been true until the mid- to late-1700s.

Of the original

13 colonies, eight had state sponsored religions. Religious phrases—God, our Lord, etc.—were a major part of the vocabulary in all the colonies’ charters and laws. A 1617 Virginia law stated, “Every person should go to church, Sundays and Holidays, or lye neck and heels that night, and be a slave to the colony the following week; for the second offence, he should be a slave for a month; and for the third, a year and a day.” However, by the late 1700s these laws began to change. In 1786 Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom became law, with the second paragraph stating, “No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever.”

Our Constitution reflects the changes that were taking place. Most of our founding fathers were of the Christian faith, but the only references to religion are in the First Amendment, no law respecting an establishment of religion, and Article VI, no religious test. Our founders gave us a Constitution and laws free from religious dogma.

Whether our nation and laws were founded on the Christian religion should have been settled in 1797. On June 10, 1797, President John Adams, reputed to be one of the most religious of our founders, signed the Treaty of Tripoli, which was passed by a Congress that included several other founding fathers. Article 11 of the treaty states, “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion …”.

Semper Fi.

KENNETH R. WEBER

Bella Vista