The other day a friend texted a picture of a quote about God etched into the walls of the Jefferson Memorial. He posed a question about how Jefferson would feel in our “godless society.”
Jefferson left some clues. More on that later…
Our alleged “godless society” is a popular self-righteous talking point. It’s even used by some who act in ways contradictory to the foundational tenets of their professed faith. Some of these same people also preach strict adherence to the Constitution, yet espouse ideas that directly contradict that document and the Bill of Rights.
The Bible and the Constitution are complicated. Human beings are simpler.
We have a movement of people preaching the “Judeo-Christian” foundations of this country and Constitution while looking to impose their religion on others. And yet some of the earliest colonists came here to escape the enforcement of a state religion.
These people either can’t or won’t see the paradox in their views. Some slide easily into intellectual inconsistency to use a document to make an argument for one issue while rejecting that same document on another. History is filled with people using false prophecy and piety to cloak moral flexibility to feed at the trough of power.
I was raised Catholic and still practice that faith. But that is a personal choice. I believe in an afterlife. I believe there is divinity in all humanity and the path to that afterlife is not limited to one one sect or one religion. Certainly, Christianity has its own complicated and dark history of fallibility.
But the lessons of humble servant faith are at the core Christianity.
Christ sought out sinners and society’s outcasts. He did not spend his time with the powerful and the prideful. He rejoiced more in the redemption of one sinner over the 99 who’d not strayed. He warned against those standing boastfully at the front of the temple for all to see their supposed piety. He pointed instead to those in the back of the temple humbly asking God for forgiveness for their flaws.
That may be why many are skeptical of those using the Bible to browbeat the supposedly “godless” people in this country. Indeed, how often have we seen men and women publicly espousing moral superiority fall short in their own lives? How often do some of those same people exhort us to follow leaders paying lip service to their faith but living otherwise?
Humble service to God crosses many faiths. The Quran states: “Truly, success in this life and in the Hereafter does come to the believers, who turn to God in all humility in their prayer. And who keep aloof from all that is vain and idle. And who act conscientiously for the sake of purity.”
But boastful selective interpretations of faith and the Constitution have been a hallmark of people from the outset of this country. How else to explain centuries of Slavery in a nation that began with the words that “all men are created equal”?
Many of the same people citing passages from the Book of Leviticus to condemn members of the LGBTQ community vilify immigrants by willfully ignoring passages in the very next chapter telling us to treat “the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you.” And if we point to the failings of others we ignore Christ who said when you point at the splinter in your brother’s eye you ignore the plank in your own.
The New Testament warns “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them.”
This nation’s self-righteous false prophets of constitutional or biblical virtue replace understanding with resentment. We’ve even seen that explode into violence. Ironically, all three of those faiths share common origins in their founding scriptures. Intolerance and hate are rejected in any of the truest elements of those faiths.
Despite voices claiming otherwise, God is still very much a part of this society. Americans go to their faith in a variety of ways. No path is to be favored or imposed by the state. But that doesn’t keep the most zealous of religious tyranny from claiming their way as the only way. Nothing is more un-American and unconstitutional than the promotion or imposition of one faith over all others.
So back to my friend’s question: How would Jefferson look at this?
Jefferson studied and respected faiths beyond what most would define as the Judeo-Christian traditions. The Quran he bought long before writing the Declaration of Independence still resides in The Library of Congress.
What a man values at the end of his life may be the best window into his mind. On his grave at Monticello, Jefferson wanted three things from his life listed there. What did a man who was Governor of Virginia, Ambassador to France, Secretary of State, Vice President and President want on his grave?
He chose three things: Author of The Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and The Father of The University of Virginia.
For him, the independence of this country, our independence from state-imposed religion and the establishment of a university to discover and disseminate knowledge and reason were the great achievements of his life. It was neither the attainment of power, nor the rank he’d attained in life.
If you ask what he’d think, it seems he would espouse the freedom to choose one’s path to enlightenment through worship of God in the form we choose, or through reason, or by both.
The words from the Statute of Religious Freedom he authored remain clear.
“Our civil rights have no dependance on our religious opinions.
“Therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence… unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right.”
And yet through all this, Jefferson himself was aware of his own inherent paradox preaching the virtues of equality while also owning slaves. With Jefferson, as with so much of the history of our faiths and our nation, it’s complicated and inconsistent. Those implying a moral certainty or superiority simply ignore the complex pathway laid out towards a more perfect union.
