Anthony Auer: Don’t read Christianity into the U.S. Constitution

Bad things happen when good people stand by and say nothing. It’s time to say something.

I am deeply concerned about contemporary Christians, church leaders and politicians, who are claiming that the Constitution of the United States is a Christian document, divinely inspired by God, and therefore we should embrace Christianity as our state religion.

History records that there were several contributors involved in the writing of the Constitution of the United States, including Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. And the influence of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams needs to be considered even though they were both out of the country when the Constitution was written, serving in the diplomatic corps.

It is important to note that none of these men embraced organized Christianity (theism) but accepted instead a popular theology of the time known as deism.

Theists believe that God created the world and all that exists and continues to be involved in the ongoing process of creation and in the lives of humans. Theists believe that God is a mystery and one embraces God through faith.

In contrast, deism is the belief that God created the world and all that exists but left it at that. The role of God is an act of creation in accordance with rational laws discoverable by humans apart from faith. After creation, God virtually withdrew and refrained from interfering in the processes of nature and the ways of humans.

As deists, our Founding Fathers would never suggest that God suddenly reversed himself and involved himself in the writing of the Constitution. Nor would these same writers ever suggest that what they were writing represented Christian values only.

The First Amendment of our Constitution refers to “religion”, not Christianity: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” The free exercise of all religions is guaranteed. All religions!

The Constitution is like the Bible; everyone has an opinion about what it says, but few have read it. I challenge politically active Christians and their pastors to read the Constitution (it’s actually a very short document) and count the number of times reference is made to God, Jesus or Christianity. Then maybe you will learn to respect the intelligence and integrity of our Founding Fathers and learn to embrace people of all faiths — and people of no faith — alike.

As persons of faith, learn to celebrate what the Constitution does say. Don’t read into it that it doesn’t say.

The Rev. Anthony Auer is a retired pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. His master of divinity degree is from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. He is currently serving as the interim pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Salt Lake City. He also served as the senior pastor of Mt. Tabor Lutheran Church in Salt Lake City (1980-87), and Hill Avenue Grace Lutheran Church in Pasadena, Calif. (1993-2010).