While writing a recent letter to the editor (see page 9)
a thought came to me. I discussed the thought with
Reed and he agreed it was not something he had
heard before. So with that I had my topic for this
month’s column.
When you hear the discussion of “Freedom of
Religion” (or as some Freethinkers would call it
“Freedom From Religion”), with out a doubt the first
thing people will start to banter about is what the
Founding Fathers wanted for this country. Christians
cite historical texts and claim that the Founders were
religious and wanted this to be a Christian nation.
Freethinkers will quote others like Thomas Jefferson
who talked about that “wall of separation between
church and state”. In fact, when you come down to
it, “what the Founders wanted” is the only thing
people on both sides seem to be able to debate.
Now, before I share my aforementioned thought, I
want to just say that I have a LOT of respect for the
Founders of this great nation of ours and doubt that I
could ever begin to come close to accomplishing what
they did. That being said, I think that the only way to
grow is to question the ideas of our forebears. Times
change and if we as human beings are going to make
it, we much change with those times.
I would just like to (as they say) step outside the box,
and ask the question: “Why should we give a darn
what the Founders thought on this issue?” I know, I
know. I hear the *GASP* from the crowd, but bear
with me here. Let’s face it, the Founders didn’t
always have the best ideas. Most of them were slave
owners and didn’t bother banning slavery in the
Constitution, or even freeing their own slaves. How
about women voting? They didn’t even bother
making sure that half of the population had a voice.
Why don’t we hear a big debate in this country about
how the Founders wanted slavery and didn’t want
women to vote? We all know this would be pointless.
We have matured a bit in our 200-year history. We
now know enslaving other human beings and not
allowing people to have a voice in the society is a bad
thing. In many ways we have outgrown the ideas of
the Founders, which is a GOOD thing. So, I would
offer up the idea that since we don’t much care about
what the Founders thought about Slavery and
Women’s rights, we should take a similar approach
with religion.
No one is going to win the “what did the Founding
Fathers want” debate on religion. The real question
is what do we as a people TODAY want. Maybe if
we start arguing those issues we might gain some
headway in this debate on the separation of church
and state.
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Angela C. Byers
Copyright © 1996 - 2006 Angela C. Byers