American commonwealth. As a result, he wrote:
"This led me to examine more attentively than I had hitherto done the station which the American clergy occupy in political society. I learned with surprise that they filled no public appointments; I did not see one of them in the administration, and they are not even represented in the legislative assemblies." 85
How different this was from Europe, where the clergy nearly always belonged to a national church and occupied seats of power. He wrote:
"The unbelievers in Europe attack the Christians as their political opponents rather than as their religious adversaries; they hate the Christian religion as the opinion of a [political] party much more than as an error of belief; and they reject the clergy less because they are the representatives of the Deity than because they are the allies of government." 86
In America, he noted, the clergy remained politically separated from the government but nevertheless provided a moral stability among the people which permitted the government to prosper. In other words, there was separation of church and state but not separation of state and religion.
The Clergy Fueled the Flame of Freedom, Stressed Morality,
and Alerted the Citizenry To Dangerous Trends
The role of the churches to perpetuate the social and political culture of the United States provoked the following comment from de Tocqueville:
"The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.... I have known of societies formed by Americans to send out ministers of the Gospel into the new Western states, to found schools and churches there, lest religion should be allowed to die away in those remote settlements, and the rising states be less fitted to enjoy free institutions than the people from whom they came." 87
De Tocqueville discovered that while the clergy felt it would be demeaning to their profession to become involved in partisan politics, they nevertheless believed implicitly in their duty to keep a message of religious principles and moral values flowing out to the people as the best safeguard for America's freedom and political security. In one of de Tocqueville's most frequently quoted passages, he stated:
"I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." 88
The Founders' Campaign for Equality of All Religions
One of the most remarkable undertakings of the American Founders was to do something no other nation had ever successfully achieved -- the task of providing legal equality for all religions, both Christian and non-Christian.
Jefferson and Madison were undoubtedly the foremost among the Founders in pushing through the first of these statutes in Virginia. Jefferson sought to disestablish the official church of Virginia in 1776, but this effort was not completely successful until ten years later.
Meanwhile, in 1784, Patrick Henry was so enthusiastic about strengthening the whole spectrum of Christian churches that he introduced a bill "Establishing a Provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion." 89
It was the intention of this bill to provide that each taxpayer would designate "to what society of Christians" his money should go. The funds collected by this means were to make "provision for a minister or teacher of the Gospel ... or the providing places of divine worship [for that denomination], and to none other
"This led me to examine more attentively than I had hitherto done the station which the American clergy occupy in political society. I learned with surprise that they filled no public appointments; I did not see one of them in the administration, and they are not even represented in the legislative assemblies." 85
How different this was from Europe, where the clergy nearly always belonged to a national church and occupied seats of power. He wrote:
"The unbelievers in Europe attack the Christians as their political opponents rather than as their religious adversaries; they hate the Christian religion as the opinion of a [political] party much more than as an error of belief; and they reject the clergy less because they are the representatives of the Deity than because they are the allies of government." 86
In America, he noted, the clergy remained politically separated from the government but nevertheless provided a moral stability among the people which permitted the government to prosper. In other words, there was separation of church and state but not separation of state and religion.
The Clergy Fueled the Flame of Freedom, Stressed Morality,
and Alerted the Citizenry To Dangerous Trends
The role of the churches to perpetuate the social and political culture of the United States provoked the following comment from de Tocqueville:
"The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.... I have known of societies formed by Americans to send out ministers of the Gospel into the new Western states, to found schools and churches there, lest religion should be allowed to die away in those remote settlements, and the rising states be less fitted to enjoy free institutions than the people from whom they came." 87
De Tocqueville discovered that while the clergy felt it would be demeaning to their profession to become involved in partisan politics, they nevertheless believed implicitly in their duty to keep a message of religious principles and moral values flowing out to the people as the best safeguard for America's freedom and political security. In one of de Tocqueville's most frequently quoted passages, he stated:
"I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." 88
The Founders' Campaign for Equality of All Religions
One of the most remarkable undertakings of the American Founders was to do something no other nation had ever successfully achieved -- the task of providing legal equality for all religions, both Christian and non-Christian.
Jefferson and Madison were undoubtedly the foremost among the Founders in pushing through the first of these statutes in Virginia. Jefferson sought to disestablish the official church of Virginia in 1776, but this effort was not completely successful until ten years later.
Meanwhile, in 1784, Patrick Henry was so enthusiastic about strengthening the whole spectrum of Christian churches that he introduced a bill "Establishing a Provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion." 89
It was the intention of this bill to provide that each taxpayer would designate "to what society of Christians" his money should go. The funds collected by this means were to make "provision for a minister or teacher of the Gospel ... or the providing places of divine worship [for that denomination], and to none other
Similar Books
