Evening star., 1952-11-16
America Was Founded
On Religious Concepts

All society, particularly our
own. is intimately dependent on
religion. In the beginning of our
own Nation, at the very time
when the revolutionary move
ment on the continent of Europe
was planning to destroy all in
f1uence Of religion on public life,
it is a remarkable fact that our
founding fathers based their
own revolutionary action on the
rights inherent in man as a
creature of God. and placed
their trust Id His divine provi-
dence. The concept Of man,
which they set forth in the
Declaration. of independence
and on which they based the
Constitution and our Bill of
Rights. is essentially a religious
concept concept inherited
from Christian tradition. Hul
man equality stems from the
fact that all men have been
created by God and equally en-
dowed by Him with rights
rooted in human nature itself.
Against any other background,
human equality has no mean
ing. Freedom. too, is essentially
bound up with the religious con-
cept OF man. In any context
that separates man from the
creative and sustaining hand
of God, there can be no free
dom. The same is true of all
mans inalienable rights. The
enjoyment of such rights is
safe only in a society which ac-
knowledges the supreme and
omnipotent God. The whole
idea of government, dedicated
to the welfare of the human
person, in the common good and
subject to Gods eternal law,
is derived from the religious
concepts of man and society
which our founders inherited
from their Christian tradition.
The founders Of this country
were deeply conscious of this
debt to religion. The long de-
iberations to which they sub
mitted the First Amendment to
the Constitution and the many
revisions it underwent before
adoption bear witness to the i'm
portant place religion occupied
in the minds of the first Con-
gresS. Certainly it was not their
purpose to eliminate the inf1u.
ence Of religion on public life.
On the contrary it was their
intention to guarantee to re-
ligion its essential freedom. In
a country of divided religious
allegiance. the Federal Govern
ment was indeed prohibited from
setting up any established re-
igion: but it was also prohibited
from interfering in any way with
any religious institution or with
the freedom of the individual in
the practice of the religion of
his conscientious choice. That
nothing other than this was in
tended. that the Federal Gov
ernment was not prevented from
encouraging and even aiding re-
ligion, so long as no particular
form OF religion should be estab-
lished by the State, is clear not
only from the wording of the
First Amendment but also from
the fact that from the begin
ming. under the Constitution and
its amendments, many practices
have fourished which have con.
tinued to give great help to re-
ligion.
Apart from the record of de-
liberation and the wording of
the First Amendment itself,
there is abundant evidence that
this carefully thought out So
luton was not indicative of in
difference and still less of hos
tility to religion. Both the North
west and Southwest Ordinances,
passed by the very men who were
responsible for the amendment.
speak of religion and morality as
necessary for good government
and the happiness of mankind"
And even more pointed are the
words used by our first Presi-
dent in his farewell address: "Of
all the dispositions and habits
which lead to political pros
perity. religion and morality are
indispensable supports Rea-
son and experience both forbid
us to expect that national NOR
ality can prevail In exclusion Of