It is clear how far modern American politics has wandered from our founders’ absolute defense of an individual’s freedom to believe as they choose. This freedom has been one of the great blessings in our nation’s history and we have an obligation to protect it for the generations of Americans to come.

Christian Nationalism is one of the most powerful political movements in America today. It is also one of the most dangerous. The foundational belief of Christian Nationalism is that the origin of American government and culture is to be found almost exclusively in biblical teachings.

It is true, judging from the historical documents and letters left behind by our founders, that many of them were believers and most were Christians. However, these early American leaders were opposed to any official role for religion in the new American government. The First Amendment to the Constitution begins with these words: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

One of our country’s first foreign policy conflicts concerned the disruption of commercial shipping in the Mediterranean Sea. Muslim pirates along the Barbary Coast of North Africa were raiding American ships almost at will. Since the American navy, such as it was, was an ocean away, President Washington decided to pursue diplomacy to protect American merchant ships. The result was the Treaty of Tripoli, drawn up during the Washington administration and signed into law by John Adams in 1797. The language in Article 11 of the document may surprise many Americans today. It reads: “As the government of the United States of America is in no sense founded on the Christian Religion — as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.”

A year before the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, Virginia passed a groundbreaking law to protect religious liberty. Written by Thomas Jefferson, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786) proclaimed that “all men shall be free to profess their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities.”

It is interesting that Baptists played a critical role in the early development of the separation of church and state in America. In 1801, early in Jefferson’s first term as president, he received a letter from the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut. It stated that the official religion in their state (a type of Calvinism) was infringing on their religious freedom. As the Baptists put it, “Whatever religious privileges we enjoy, we enjoy as favors granted and not as inalienable rights.” Jefferson’s reply, which is certainly the most famous statement in American history concerning religious freedom, assured the Baptists that the 1st Amendment had “erected a wall of separation between church and state,” thus placing them beyond the power of state authorities in this matter.

In 1785, James Madison, who later would become known as the “father of our Constitution,” led the opposition in Virginia against a religious tax to support the Episcopal Church. In a document known as a “Memorial and Remonstration against Religious Assessments,” Madison carries his argument far beyond simply an opposition to the tax. First, Madison pointed out that the free exercise of religion implies the right to believe in no religion at all. He was adamant that strife and violence would only be encouraged by laws that even touched on religion. He believed that Christian religion did not need civil support and it was an insult to the faith to assume that it did. Later in life, Madison came to believe his positions on religious freedom had not gone far enough. He regretted his call, while president, for a national day of prayer during the War of 1812 and had come to regard it as a mistake. Madison even declared that the inclusion of chaplains in the U.S. military was “inconsistent with the Constitution.”

It is clear how far modern American politics has wandered from our founders’ absolute defense of an individual’s freedom to believe as they choose. This freedom has been one of the great blessings in our nation’s history and we have an obligation to protect it for the generations of Americans to come.

Keith Townsend