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Is America’s Government Secular?

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Was America founded to be a secular nation? In other words, does religion have no role in American politics or public policy-making? The answer is more complex than you might think. Robert George, Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, explains.

This video was made possible through our partnership with Dallas Baptist University. Learn more at https://www.prageru.com/dbu

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Script:

It has become a dogma of progressive ideology that America is a “secular” nation. What do people mean by secular?

Their argument goes this way: “Since the Constitution establishes a strict separation of church and state, religion has no place in how the country is to be governed. Religion is a purely ‘private’ matter and therefore must be kept out of politics or public policy-making.”

There is a problem with this claim, however:

It’s false.

What the Constitution actually does when it comes to religion is, first, ban religious tests of any sort for public office—that’s in Article 6—and, second, forbid the enactment of any “law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”— those are the words of the First Amendment.

The plain meaning of those words is that Congress was forbidden from one, establishing a national church (on the model of the Church of England); and two, attempting to disestablish or interfering with the established churches that existed in some of the states—in certain cases for decades after ratification of the First Amendment.

But what about the “separation of church and state”? That’s in the Constitution, too, isn’t it?

Well, no. 

Try as you might, you will not find the words “separation of church and state” in the Constitution. The famous phrase comes from a letter that Thomas Jefferson, who was not at the Constitutional Convention—(he was in France at the time)—wrote years later to a Baptist community in Danbury, Connecticut.

Jefferson in his characteristically eloquent way was simply trying to capture the spirit of the first amendment prohibiting the establishment of a national religion. The author of the Declaration of Independence was committed to an America where people were free to practice any faith or no faith, as their consciences dictate.

None of the Founding Fathers, including Jefferson who was among the least religious of them (though not an atheist), ever entertained the idea that there was to be a separation of religion from public life or from politics. 

The secularist claim that our Constitution consigns religion to the purely private sphere is contradicted by the words and actions of the greatest figures in American history, from Washington, who called for national days of prayer; to Lincoln, who proclaimed a national day of prayer and fasting; to Martin Luther King.

King, of course, was the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, a Baptist clergyman, who fought racial segregation and discrimination in the most explicitly Biblical terms. 

If you believe the secularist understanding of the separation of church and state, Martin Luther King violated that doctrine in almost everything he did.

And so did every president in American history. Every single one invoked God in his inaugural address. 

For Martin Luther King, as for so many other Americans, racial injustice was not only a violation of the Golden Rule but, first and foremost, a violation of the teaching of the Book of Genesis that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God.

There are in the world truly secularist regimes. France, with its system of “laicite”—religion must be exercised only in the private, not the public, sphere—is one. So, of course, are the communist regimes of China, Cuba, and North Korea.

In such regimes, secularism is the official public philosophy, and religion is, to the extent it is permitted at all, restricted to the private domain. 

But that is not an accurate description of the United States—at all. 

And how could it be? Although we separate the institutions of religion from those of government, we do that not to make religion subservient to the state, but rather to protect it from the state. 

For the complete script as well as FACTS & SOURCES, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/is-americas-government-secular

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31 Comments

  1. Nothing but ideological propaganda here. I hope one day our species will evolve beyond these archaic and decisive beliefs.

    Religion has torn people apart for all of human history and overall done more harm than good.

    Time to set the fairytales aside.

  3. "Creator" wasn't, and isnt, meant to mean God in the Christian sense. Its fine if you believe that, but it isn't true. It was meant, amd is meant, to be ambiguous to any belief. I know its great to believe that all Founders were devout Christians washed in the Blood of Christ, but they were diverse and questioning.

  6. The constitution clearly says one can practice their religion, any religion ,freely. Atheists can freely choose not any beliefs in religion. Therefore each is free to represent the god they worship. That is what attracts people to move to the US in order to freely practice their beliefs. It is a melting pot of different beliefs. An infringement of any one religion over other religions is not allowed nor should ever be allowed. The founders made sure in the constitution not to mention any particular religion, and did so wisely.

  10. Again this video is not bad at all pretty much everything they say is absolutely correct, but like the video they did on separation between church and state they have a different understanding of the term secular. And what Prager U is saying is absolutely correct, The freedom from religion foundation and other secular organizations have absolutely no idea what separation between church and state is, well not absolutely no idea but they want to expand upon it to mean total and absolute removal of Christianity from the public sphere, so they try to argue that in God we trust being our national motto is a violation of separation between church and state, and having the Bible in the inauguration is a violation of separation between church and state, and the under God being in the Pledge of Allegiance is a separation between church and state, which is absolutely not.

  13. So you think that the same god that said "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." also endowed you with a country that allows people to worship any god they want? Man you guys are clowns.

  14. If America was good trump wouldn't had pardoned a Supreme Court, we need to take our government to court For massive human rights violations including men's rights violations while screaming women's rights And I'll run again don't be sexist aka draft we need war

  15. He is being dishonest in implying that Jefferson's response in the Danbury letter was only in opposition to a federal state church, has he even read the Danbury letter? Jefferson does not state that he only opposes a federal church. Be honest man

  17. This is just building a foundation so that laws banning gay rights or reproductive rights (not just abortion) will be ok even if they are simply based on Christianity or the Bible. Non-Christians got to go along and be ok with it, under this justification

  18. Strange how he leaves out that while MLKjr was very religious, those who wanted to keep MLKjr to be a second class citizen based on the Bible. Those who opposed Civil rights were the biggest believers in religion in America

  19. What do Abraham Lincoln and MLK have to do with the founders intent on if religion in government? Lincoln was born 22 years after the Constitution was written and MLK was born a whopping 142 years after the Constitution was written. And while Washington did call for national day of prayer, he leaves out that President Jefferson opposed it when he became president

  20. The Constitution bans an "establishment of religion", not "of a religion" so it is wrong for him to state or imply there is only a prohibition an an establishment of a religion or church. It is about religion in general

  22. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof "
    That is the separation of church and state. By passing religious based laws you would in prohibiting the free exercise of other religions and establishing one religion over others.
    There is a different between a person invoking god at some event and the government making laws that are an establishment of religion.

    Of course the people at PU will not read this because they don't care about facts, they want to turn the US into a theocracy.