My God Can Beat Up Your God

The U.S. Constitution does not mention the word "God" or the word "Creator" or the word "Jesus" or the word "Christ". Unlike the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution is a fairly technical document, really. It's like the Declaration of Independence is a letter written to break up with your former lover, and the Constitution is the marriage certificate for your current spouse. The only mention of religion in the Constitution is in Article 6, which states that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States".

The first States were a little uncomfortable with the Constitution as it was ratified, and two years later, the first ten amendments to the Constitution (a.k.a. the Bill of Rights) became law. Why? Because the states were nervous that the Constitution didn't provide enough protection for basic rights of the individual. And what was priority number one in the Bill of Rights? This: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof".

See, many of the "Founding Fathers" were a little more enlightened than the bunch who run the show nowadays. They remembered the fact that some of the first settlers came to America not-too-long-ago to escape places where the rulers were a little too pushy about religion. They wanted to set up a government that represented all the people, regardless of religion. Kinda smart, right?

How many religions are there? Well how long is a piece of string? It's not just the Christians, the Muslims, and the Jews. The Christians then have the Catholics and the Protestants. The Protestants have the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians. When you get right down to it, no two people think alike - even in the most evangelical church, some people will believe in a woman's right to choose for herself medically. And this is not even to mention the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Pastafarians, etc. So the founding fathers said, "Let's leave all that mess in the church and leave the government to do the governin'." So far, this approach has mostly worked, but it's only been a couple of centuries.

When President Bush nominates a Supreme Court Justice based on her religion, that is a cause for concern. We know that his understanding of the concept of "job qualifications" is not exactly spot on, but I think the American people believe that the primary reason a person should be nominated to the Supreme Court is said nominee's understanding of, and experience with, oh, I don't know, Constitutional Law?

And if you think it was just an off-hand, or background, comment, then think about this: The Christian right is loudly proclaiming Harriett Miers' evangelical background. But the same Christian right said that John Roberts' (Catholic) religious background should have been off limits to the discussion. (Hannity: "I don't think it's any of these senators' business what his faith is.")

By the way, do you think this is a slippery slope logical fallacy? Let me just say that the people who want to put Ten Commandments monuments in all our courthouses better make a lot of room for them.

Update (10/13/2005 12:29): Interestingly, one of Harriett Miers' few experiences with Constitutional Law was to argue a case to try to get around the 12th Amendment. She won the case, convincing the judge that Dick Cheney was not a Texan, despite living in Texas, being registered to vote in Texas, having a Texas driver's license, and running a company based in Texas. In other words, Harriett Miers successfully won a lawsuit to bypass the Constitution which resulted in the bastardly Bush/Cheney ticket being allowed to move in to the White House.