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Thomas Jefferson, Religion and the State
Channing Memorial Church December 1, 2002 READINGS From the Declaration of Independence, July 1776: "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them...they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,…." From the Statute of Virginia For Religious Freedom (drafted by Jefferson in 1777 adopted in 1786): "Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; That all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness,… That the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time;… That our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry…; That truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them: Be it enacted by the General Assembly that no man shall be
compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry
whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in
his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious
opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument
to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall
in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities." Good morning. For those of you I have not met, I'm Richard Lacquement. I have been a member of Channing Memorial Church since we moved to Newport in the summer of 2001. Today, three days after one of the most American of holidays, it is valuable to reflect on and be thankful for our American heritage and our Unitarian Universalist heritage, both of which owe much to the same prominent intellectual forbearer. Thomas Jefferson was a leader in creating the American state and establishing the concept of separation of church and state. This also helped lay the foundation of an American civil religion. Jefferson, and the civil religion he helped create, are both closely linked to Unitarian Universalism and its core principles. For UU's today, this is a mixed blessing that should generate pride, caution and hope. Pride in the principles of tolerance and reason that mark both our denomination and our country. Caution that idolatries of the mind-secular or religious-not be allowed to achieve unchallenged dominion over society. Hope that the tradition of free inquiry and use of the democratic process provides the enduring means for defeating such tyranny. On his tombstone in Charlottesville, on the grounds of Monticello, the simple epitaph Jefferson dictated reads: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson: Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University of Virginia." These are indeed tremendous achievements to mark an impressive life, but they are remarkable all the more for having been selected while so many other achievements were omitted: Member of the Continental Congress, three term Governor of Virginia during the American Revolution, Minister to France (during the French Revolution no less), the first Secretary of State (under President Washington) Vice President to John Adams, The third American President, serving two terms from 1801-1809, and the organizer of the Louisiana purchase that doubled the size of the country. No. Only: "Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University of Virginia." The first item requires little explanation. It is readily familiar. The authorship of the Declaration places Jefferson in the pantheon of American civil religious heros. In this document, Jefferson forcefully proclaimed the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" and enunciated "unalienable rights" with which we are all "endowed by our creator." Jefferson provided the world one of the most clear and concise statements of enlightenment thought on the rights of humankind and their guidance for the creation of government based upon the consent of the governed. The second document, is probably less familiar to most people. The statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, prevented the imposition of any particular church's religious interpretations and dogmas by the government. It is sometimes difficult today-possibly taking our religious freedom for granted-to realize the religious confines under which much of the country operated. At the time that Jefferson drafted the statute for religious freedom, he noted many restrictive state laws. For example, he noted that in his state, Virginia,
Jefferson rejected such government imposed religious tests and restrictions, rather, he believed that governance must derive from natural laws and rights. These, he emphatically believed, could be discerned by reason. The secular, republican form of American government he helped create, had no precedent elsewhere. Jefferson was willing, in the face of strong opposition from organized religious leaders of his day to persist in removing the church and its leaders from any official role in the civil government. The statute of Virginia for religious freedom was the forerunner of the religious freedom clause contained in the bill of rights of the U.S. Constitution. The third achievement listed on the epitaph honored the creation of a public home for the development and enrichment of human reason that was so central to the proper functioning of the society Jefferson sought. The University of Virginia was the first school founded in this country that was not associated with a particular religious order. Furthermore, the course of instruction and the structure of the faculty were the source of controversy right from the start when the university excluded religious instruction and provided no formal role for ecclesiastical leaders. A central theme that emerges from these three accomplishments is the importance of human reason freed from the shackles of overbearing religious institutions. But contrary to some of the attacks launched against Jefferson by many religious leaders and other opponents in his day and since, Jefferson was not an atheist or even anti-religious. He was, however, very skeptical of members of the clergy and hostile to their presuppositions of unquestioned authority. Jefferson was a very independent minded, thinker who did not claim any particular denominational affiliation. In theology, his views were very much those of the Unitarians of his day-many of whom he counted as close friends, such as Joseph Priestly and John Adams. It is also clear that he was a Deist. Deism was a concept of God that challenged interpretations of God's direct interference in the lives of individuals. A common metaphor for the Deist conception of God is as a great clockmaker who created the universe and set it in motion. Humans are understood to possess free will and control over their own destinies within this universe. They also possess natural rights and natural faculties derived from the creator's initial work. The capacity for reason is present in all people and permits the discernment of truth, or at least an approximation of it, through the free flow of debate and discourse. Quoting Jefferson again,
Jefferson was also a great admirer of Jesus. He saw Jesus as a moral exemplar whose essential humanity-not divinity-formed the basis for respect. Asserting one of the strongest versions of Unitarian Christianity, Jefferson rejected the supernatural and mystical elements of the new testament as contrary to reason and as a corruption by later writers who had missed the core humanity and moral guidance of Jesus. To fix this perceived corruption, Jefferson undertook to sift the nuggets of Jesus' sublime moral program from the four gospels of the New Testament. The result is The Jefferson Bible [Boston: Beacon Press, 1991. And available through the Channing Memorial bookstore.] in which he removed all references to virgin birth, resurrection, miracles and other stories that strained reason. He left the parables and sayings that he felt reflected the moral code Jesus provided. As he put it in a 1822 letter to a friend,
Jefferson regarded his own personal religious views as of no consequence to how the country should be governed. "Jefferson was a child of the Enlightenment, and his own religious views as an adult … he tended to keep to himself, …On grounds of principle he was welcoming of religious pluralism: The way to truth, he believed, was to let all beliefs contend--freely, and out in the open." [1] And this should be beyond the realm of government. Again, quoting Jefferson, "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." [Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782, p. 285.] When the statute of religious freedom was adopted, Jefferson declared his satisfaction, "...to see the standard of reason at length erected, after so many ages during which the human mind has been held in vassalage by kings, priests, and nobles; and …to declare that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions." [Jefferson to James Madison, 1786] The relations of states to particular religious orders have been a point of contention throughout history. At an extreme, the rejection of religion in all facets was a core element of Marxism and was institutionalized in places like the Soviet Union. Similarly unwilling to abide the potential conflict of religious authorities, the totalitarian dictatorship of Nazi Germany established its own ideological supremacy that suppressed or co-opted Christian churches in pursuit of a radicalized racial and pseudo-religious dogma. This Nazi civil religion was full of Symbols, prophets, rituals, songs, and creeds. Nationalistic myth and Dogma were presented as received wisdom representing immutable truths. Earlier in this service we sang a soaring hymn, Light of Ages and of Nations. The words of the hymn were written by Unitarian Samuel Longfellow in the 19th century. The words are a wonderful complement to those of Jefferson that are woven throughout this message. 'Revelation is not sealed.' 'Truth and right' still yield to our endeavors, They can shine to us today as they did to 'ancient sages' because they are 'written in the souls' deep pages.' But there was another point I intended. Many of you may have recognized the music of Franz Joseph Haydn from a more jarring context. The tune is the same one of the German national anthem. During World Wars I and II, its first lines were "Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles, uber alles in der welt." (Germany, Germany above all, above everything in the world) to many this was the imperious voice of a strident civil religion run amok. I am happy to endorse our own association's effort to reclaim a powerful musical piece and place it in the service of more noble sentiments. The term civil religion was first used by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and refers to the religious dimension of the polity. American civil religion has been summed up by one scholar as "an institutionalized collection of sacred American beliefs providing sources of cohesion and prophetic guidance through times of national crises." [2] It has also been decribed as the use of religious means and words to promote national values and patriotism. Liberty, nationalism and faith are fused in the American civil religion. It rests on principles of liberal social organization with an emphasis on individual freedom, individual rights, and the limited and proper role of government in protecting the responsible exercise of such freedoms. Jefferson was essential to these efforts as he sought to "raise the republic on the inalienable rights of man, allowing every citizen sovereignty over his own mind and conscience." [3] Indeed, for the civil religion to dominate the common relationship of all Americans, it was important that no particular traditional religious view, even that held by the vast majority of the people, be given any pride of place. It is not a coincidence that Unitarian Universalism, finds its largest group of adherents in the United States. Very few countries have any tradition of religious pluralism and tolerance. Those that have such protections have generally created them only recently. Although Unitarian Universalism is universal in its aspirations, it is quintessentially American in its origin and principles. Our country and our particular manner of religious fellowship are closely connected. We owe much of our denomination's freedom to Jefferson's efforts to limit the state's role in religion and prevent the favoritism of the state towards any particular ecclesiastical authority. In limiting the role of religious dominion over civil society, he also helped encourage the creation of secular substitutes. In general these are worthy elements of common identity and pride. In includes our time-honored organizing documents.
The American civil religion is most dramatically symbolized in a flag held by some to be virtually sacred-it's disrespectful treatment characterized as desecration; Our civil calendar is marked by extensive rituals and solemn ceremonies (July fourth, Presidential inaugurations, Thanksgiving, Memorial day, and the somber flag-draped funerals of president's and soldiers, to name but a few). Just as the noble aspirations and principles of great religions can be misapplied or abused in the service of narrow interests, so too can the appeal of national transcendence be called to the service of less noble aims. The understanding of our civil religion can become shrouded in dogma and doctrines of received nationalistic wisdom and patriotic passion no less dangerous to the exercise of reason than the claims of religious authoritarians. These are cause for caution. Throughout American history, we have witnessed the pseudo-religious dogma and doctrinaire adherence to principles of an American civil religion. The Ku Klux Klan and, recently, various militia movements calling themselves patriots, have tried to stamp narrow interpretations of immutable truth on our civil society. Thomas Jefferson most assuredly did not seek to replace the tyranny of fallible, uninspired religious authorities with the tyranny of fallible, uninspired political authorities. In closing, I would like to highlight the fifth principle of the Unitarian Universalist Association: to affirm and promote... "the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large." In a 1800 letter to prominent Universalist, Dr Benjamin Rush, Jefferson wrote, "I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." [Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush, 1800] Jefferson's contributions to the formation of American government, and particularly the protection of religious freedom, have given us the means to continue to fight any such tyranny, whether secular or religious. We can take great pride in the contributions Thomas Jefferson and Unitarian Universalism have provided in helping us to understand this nation and this world as a realm of action within which individuals have value and influence. That our souls' deep pages contain reason, passion, love and tolerance. That we have a capacity to discern new revelations to serve the greater good. That the right of conscience connected to the democratic process provides a valuable mechanism to reconcile competing values. That we have great cause for hope in advancing the human condition by building upon the sound principles and living processes of enlightened forbearers. NOTES: "Be ours a religion which, like sunshine, goes everywhere; "May your life preach more loudly than your lips" [William Ellery Channing] So, let it be. |