By Gary DeMar
Editor’s note: The following was excerpted from an article which originally appeared in Biblical Worldview, March, 2004 issue.

In December of 2003, the world celebrated 100 years of manned flight. What we’ve learned about heavier-than-air flying machines is that you need two wings to get an airplane off the ground. Secularists try to fly the historical argument that our founders were dutiful in separating religion from government. Ed Buckner, the Southern Director for the Council of Secular Humanism and a semi-regular writer on religion, and I have been exchanging articles on this subject.

In an article in early 2004, Mr. Buckner stated that our Constitution “requires governmental neutrality.” Here’s a secular humanist’s definition of “governmental neutrality:”

Neutrality is when a court mandates that prayers cannot be said at a commencement ceremony even though Congress opens each session with prayer and has its own prayer room and paid chaplain.

Neutrality is when the Ten Commandments cannot be displayed in a court house in Alabama, although they have been displayed prominently in the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court since 1927 and appear in several government office buildings in Washington, D.C., including the Supreme Court.

Neutrality is when a nativity scene must be removed from government property even though government employees get Christmas off as a paid holiday.

Neutrality is when “under God” must be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance, even though “In God is our trust” is in the National Anthem and “In God We Trust” is our nation’s motto.

Neutrality is when the religion of evolution cannot be questioned in a government school, but God cannot be mentioned.

The new state religion
The removal of all references to religion from government is not neutrality but the establishment of a new religion – Statism.

The claim of religious neutrality has gotten so ridiculous that extraordinary means have had to be taken in order to ensure that the secularists don’t distort the historical record. For example, the Georgia State Senate submitted legislation giving teachers permission to post historical documents such as the Georgia Constitution, the U. S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Mayflower Compact, the national motto, the national anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance and any writings or speeches by the authors of these documents or the president and any U. S. Supreme Court decisions or congressional legislation. Why was this necessary? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, “The bill’s sponsor said some educators might be reluctant to discuss them because some of them ”make reference to God.” The bill was approved 47-5.

Those pesky religious references
The Constitution neither requires nor practices religious neutrality. For example, the Constitution sets Sunday aside as a day of rest for the president (Art. 1, sec. 7). This is not neutrality since it does not recognize Friday (Islam) or Saturday (Judaism) as religious days of rest. Why mention any religious day of rest if it was the attempt of our founders to create a purely secular document devoid of any hint of religion? In a very unneutral statement, the Constitution states that it was “DONE in convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth.” Pat Robertson makes several good points on why the inclusion of the date is significant:

The Constitution for the emerging United States of America was signed by George Washington on September 17, “in the year of our Lord” 1787. To those who say that there is no mention of God or Jesus Christ in the Constitution, I ask this question: Which “Lord“ was Washington referring to? Lord North? King George, Lord of England? Or was it the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born 1,787 years previously and whose birth became the point of reference for all Western calendars?

Having signed “in the year of our Lord,” Washington was faced with no protest, no minority report, and no claim that the rights of non-Christians were being violated.

To follow the logic of secular humanists like Mr. Buckner, it seems rather odd that the founders didn’t eliminate all references to the Christian calendar and follow France’s lead by beginning the constitutional era with a new “year one” and changing the seven-day creation week to a ten-day metric week. But our founders didn’t cut off the newly formed nation from its Christian foundation. And how does Mr. Bucker defend the claim that “in the year of our Lord” has no religious significance?

Buckner writes: “This is an easy one, even though I’ve had it presented to me as if it were unanswerable evidence of our allegedly Christian heritage. When presented with this one, ask your critic if he worships the sun god or the moon god or the Germanic god Tiu or Norse gods Woden and Thor, or the Norse goddess of love or the Roman god of agriculture or the Roman gods Janus or Mars. If he says ‘No,’ insist that he stop referring to the days of the week as Sunday (named in honor of the sun god), Monday (after the moon god), Tuesday (the goddess Tiu’s Day), Wednesday (Woden’s Day), Thursday (Thor’s Day), Friday (Freya’s Day), Saturday (Saturris’ day). He’ll have to come up with new names as well for January (named after Janus) and March (after Mars). It’s not hard to find other examples among names of months.”

Mr. Buckner answers his own objection. People in eighteenth century America did not worship these so-called gods, but they did worship Jesus Christ. There weren’t churches dedicated to the sun and moon gods, but there were churches dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep in mind what the secularist must prove: the founders self consciously separated all forms of religion from government.

A religious declaration
Also overlooked by secularists in the discussion of religion and its supposed neutrality when connected with government is the Declaration of Independence. Some claim that the Declaration is not really a founding document since it was not designed to establish a new nation but only to establish a legal argument of separation from British rule. But the Constitution does not see it this way. In the same sentence that references “in the Year of Our Lord,” we find “and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth.” “The Twelfth” is a reference to the Declaration of Independence which was written twelve years earlier and uses non-neutral religious terms like “endowed by their Creator,” “the laws of nature and of nature’s God,” “with a firm reliance on DIVINE PROVIDENCE” (emphasis in original), and “the Supreme Judge of the world.” While these are not specifically Christian phrases, they certainly aren’t religiously neutral.

“May Saint Thomas preserve us”
Mr. Buckner calls on the patron saint of church-state separation in defense of the secularist position of complete religious neutrality. While the “separation of church and state” did not originate with Thomas Jefferson, it was popularized with the publication of his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists. While Jefferson opposed a federal religious establishment, he encouraged and symbolically supported religion by attending public church services in the Capitol!

But why is a letter from a president so authoritative on the subject of religion and government when the Constitution is the “Supreme Law of the land”? The First Amendment, which Jefferson had no hand in writing since he was in France at the time, is very concise and clear, so clear in fact that secularists resist quoting it: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Please tell me how from this succinct statement that judges have the authority to tell schools and states how to deal with the issue of religion and its relationship to government? The prohibition is addressed to Congress and offers no authority to the courts. It wasn’t Congress that placed a copy of the Ten Commandments in the state Supreme Court building in Montgomery, Alabama, and Congress has not mandated that anyone bow and worship at the manger. The courts have overstepped their constitutional authority by prohibiting “the free exercise” of these state and local governments to govern their own religious affairs.

An eyewitness account
George Washington, who was an actual participant at the Constitutional Convention, certainly didn’t separate religion from government. While neither mandated nor forbidden by the Constitution, George Washington took his oath of office with his hand on an open Bible and swore, “So help me, God.”

In his first inaugural address Washington made reference “to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe; who presides in the councils of nations; and whose providential aid can supply every human defect.” He went on to say that God’s “benediction” is needed to “consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the People of the United States.”

Washington began his first Thanksgiving Proclamation (1789) with these words: “. . . [I]t is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” He then went on to state that he was called upon by “both Houses of Congress ‘to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”’ These are hardly neutral words.

Conclusion
Examples like these could be multiplied 10 times over, especially in state constitutions. If the Declaration and Constitution were being drafted today, Mr. Buckner, the ACLU, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State would be first in line to object to every religious reference included therein.