A Christian Nation

The War on Religion

          Ron Paul wrote this piece when he was a member of the Texas congress in 2003.  It expands on the views he expressed in the Republican debate clip from last week of a Christian tradition in America.  He writes how the Founders believe America should be a religious nation, but that Christianity should be very prominent.  Much of his reasoning for this is the service Christianity does for the political process.  In the last paragraph, Paul highlights how such institutions help gather, mobilize, and teach people. This is key to his political philosophy and libertarian ideals.  He believes that the Christian church can teach Americans how to be good citizens and with a nation of empathetic, caring citizens, the need for government would be minimal. Since each citizen would care for one another and themselves, there would be no need for government welfare or regulations on personal freedom.  People would know ‘right and wrong’ and follow Christian principles of helping their fellow man and abstaining from harmful activities.

                There are two things of interest that Paul does not bring up: Christianity’s ability to mobilize people in politics and other religions’ capacity to foster good citizenry.  Places of worship help to teach, promote, and spread religious, moral, and ethical ideas which can easily be transformed into political beliefs.  Then, by bringing people of similar beliefs together in a public forum with a multitude of social and economical capital their personal and political agency increases.  Not just Christianity has this power however. Every religion can help mobilize people for political and non-political reasons.   Even non-religious social gatherings can mobilize people. So why does Paul focus on a Christian nation and not simply a religious nation?  He repeats how the Founders envisioned a Christian nation but is there more? Perhaps, he believes Christianity is the best religion for fostering good citizens. Or he could believe that America needs a concrete symbolic religion or else its openness will just lead to secularization and a deficiency of moral fiber.

Separation of Church And State

Ron Paul on separation of church and state

This clip comes from the CNN Republican candidate debate on June 13^th of this year.  In describing his belief on the separation of Church and State (or lack thereof), Paul makes it clear he is an accommodationist. He points out how there is no specific reference to such a phrase in the Constitution but only the protection from a theocracy and the right to practice one’s religion freely.  Paul goes a step further though and states that the founders only meant the right to practice a Christian religion.  This is out of step with current interpretations that the First Amendment applies to all religions.  Paul relies on an original intent interpretation of the Constitution, believing that since the United States was founded by Christian men based on Christian principles that the right thus applied to Christian religions.  However, if it did only apply to Christian religion, why not state that specifically? The Constitution was written to prevent that same persecution that caused settlers from England to colonize America in the first place.  With this in mind, the First Amendment is clearly meant to extend to all religions, even ones that the Founders were not familiar with or did not exist at the time.

                This clip ties into Jefferson’s belief on the separation of church and state.  Jefferson was a religious man but took the Bible not as literal but rather allegorical, basing it in nature and reason rather than faith.  Jefferson wanted the morality that religion provides but a logical explanation and foundation that did not rely on faith-based religion but science and fact found in nature.   Paul as believes in a moral fiber of the nation but also the freedom to choose one’s own code (at 20 seconds in to the clip).  This is similar to Jefferson’s belief but Paul seems to base the morality and freedom of an individual on religion and Christian teachings rather than natural law.