Copyright 2006 Gene Garman. No part of this essay may be reproduced
in full or in part without express permission from the owner and publisher.
For an MP3 audio CD of the lecture, send $6 (check or postal money order)
to America's Real Religion, P.O. Box 1482, Pittsburg, KS 66762.
Reuben Weatherford, attorney, Kansas City, Missouri: "An excellent
speaker."
Stanley C. Grant, Ph.D., Topeka, Kansas: "An outstanding presentation
and I would like to hear it again!"
Martin A. Larson, Ph. D., Phoenix, Arizona: "Well written book."
Joe Bailey Hyden, attorney, Dallas, Texas: "I have read it through
twice, . . . no clearer explanation of the principle of separation of church
and state."
America's Real Religion
The issue of religion and government is a major debate
in the United States of America. Fortunately, the Supreme Court
of the United States researched the religion clauses of the First
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution long before it made decisions
about such matters as required prayer (Engel v. Vitale, 1962)
and required Bible reading (Abington v. Schempp, 1963). In
1879 (Reynolds v. U.S.), 1947 (Everson v. Board),
and 1948 (McCollum v. Board), the Court set solid precedent
with Jefferson's and Madison's definitions. Unfortunately, if there
were ever an issue wherein clarity is lacking and confusion prevails
among attorneys, authors, clerics, commentators, educators, historians,
journalists, judges, politicians, and the general public, it is the
meaning of the First Amendment's religion clauses. There is no better
example of such confusion than CHIEF JUSTICE WILLIAM H. REHNQUIST
whose abuse and ignorance of history is thoroughly documented in the
second essay on the list below and in the link to Liberty magazine,
which is posted below..
Further, ever since 1962 some misinformed people (who have possibly never
read Engel or Schempp or any other court decision) have been
propagating the false information that God, religion, and prayer are
unconstitutional according to the United States Supreme Court. That is
a very dishonest assessment of the Constitution and the Court rulings.
Hopefully, you understand it is required religion, required Bible reading,
or required prayer which is unconstitutional. For example, the Founding
Fathers and the states which ratified the Constitution said, "no religious
test shall ever be REQUIRED" (Art. 6., Sec. 3.). The First Congress and the
states which ratified the First Amendment said "Congress shall make
no LAW respecting an establishment of RELIGION." In America religion
is not to be imposed by law or government upon anyone. Religious belief
and support is none of the government's business, is a matter for individuals,
families, churches, and religion organizations, and is to be freely exercised--that
is what the Constitution says and the Court said. As a result there are
hundreds of thousands of churches and religions of all kinds freely functioning in America.
One of the other obvious objectives of the Constitution is to keep
the majority from imposing its religion by force of law upon the minority.
In America today there are more Muslims than Presbyterians and more Buddhists
than Episcopalians. The main point about the religion clauses of the Constitution
is that religion is not to be established by law or government at any level.
In America religion is to be voluntary, and what good is it if it is not voluntary?
Most of the people who are complaining about the Constitution and
the Court want religion required and imposed upon Americans,
especially in public schools, which are not churches and where
children of all religions are welcome to attend. That is not what
America is all about in regard to religion. Public schools may
teach about all of the religions of the world, but they are not
to require religion or to impose religion upon anyone. Of course,
there are some of us Americans who are complaining that some
members on the Supreme Court and some politicians are indeed
attempting to establish required religion and would impose
religion and the support of religion upon Americans. That is why
there are court cases and public controversies involving such
things as (1) required tax support of school vouchers for
students attending private schools (taxes are not given
voluntarily and coerced public funds are for institutions
owned by the public), (2) imposed recitation of "prayers"
at official public events, (3) official chaplains, and
(4) abuse of the Free Exercise Clause by church organizations
which attempt to ignore and overturn city and county zoning
regulations--see my essay "A License for Anarchy?"
The book, , by Gene Garman, M. Div.,
provides primary source citations for quotations from Benjamin Franklin,
George Washington, Thomas Paine, John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison,
and Abraham Lincoln regarding their personal religion
and regarding religion's proper relationship to government. For example,
James Madison, Father of the Constitution, a co-chairman of the
joint Senate-House conference committee which drafted the First Amendment,
fourth president of the United States -- in school, were you taught that
Madison believed in separation between religion and government? Thomas
Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute
for Religious Freedom, third president of the United States -- in school,
were you taught that Jefferson was a unitarian who believed in separation between church and
state? John Adams, second president of the United States -- in school,
were you taught that Adams did not believe in the doctrine of eternal damnation
or the trinity? George Washington, Father of His Country, first president
of the United States -- in school, were you taught that Washington refused
to take communion in Christian churches? In school, were you taught that
Franklin, Paine, and Lincoln believed in God but were not communing members
of any Christian church? AMERICA'S REAL RELIGION documents the above
statements and what these famous Americans believed about religion -- in
their own words (including citations).
America's Real Religion publishes a Space Age Calendar for the
space age. On July 20, 1969, the United States of America landed a
manned space craft on the surface of the moon which orbits planet
earth. When American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface
of the moon, it was a small step for a man but a giant leap for
mankind. That step marked the first time in the written history of
mankind a human being stepped onto the surface of another celestial
body. That day opened a new chapter in recorded history and serves as
a date specific which provides opportunity for a new beginning for all
mankind in terms of recording modern history, in contrast to the
ancient calendars of both the eastern and western world.
In order to make the book AMERICA'S REAL RELIGION more
easily available and because of the importance of its research in relation
to current social, political, and judicial discussions, the book AMERICA'S
REAL RELIGION is now published on this website. You may NOW access the the book in it's entirety.
Simply click on the link below:
The book AMERICA'S REAL RELIGION is in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. If you do not have the Adobe Acrobat Reader,
please click on the link below to download the appropriate version of Adobe Acrobat Reader for your
computer and operating system.
The latest addition to America's Real Religion was added on January 17, 2004.
The last chapter of the book America's Real Religion has now
been added. It is the chapter dealing with primary source quotations about religion
from several of America's foremost forefathers.
The facts of history -- not the fictions of history -- are what AMERICA'S
REAL RELIGION is about. No librarian, student, or teacher of American history
should overlook this uniquely relevant book about the Religion Commandments of the
Constitution.
What is the valuable purpose of understanding the Religion Commandments of the Constitution?
Well, if you have read (I hope all of you have), The Establishment Clause, by Pulitzer
Prize winning constitutional historian Leonard W. Levy, you will read in his Preface:
"The Establishment Clause functions to depoliticize religion; it thereby helps to defuse
a potentially explosive situation. The Clause substantially removes religion issues from
the ballot box and from politics. ... The Establishment Clause separates government and
religion so that we can maintain civility between believers and unbelievers as well as
among the several hundred denominations, sects, and cults that thrive in our nation, all
sharing the commitment to [the] liberty and equality that cements us together." Now if
we could just get the politicians to understand.
Schedule a lecture or speech :
Contact Gene Garman, M. Div., with e-mail at
ggarman@sunnetworks.net or postal mail at America's Real Religion, Attn: Lecture, P.O. Box 1482, Pittsburg, KS 66762-1482
About the essays on this web site :
The essays below are in addition to the information in the book
AMERICA'S REAL RELIGION . The list of essays is occasionally updated and expanded.
Remember, the information on this web site is not the same as the information in the book.
FOR EXAMPLE, be sure to read the writings of Baptist Pastor JOHN LELAND,
who, prior to drafting of the Constitution, influenced both Thomas Jefferson
and James Madison and who, in 1791, after the First Amendment had become
part of the Constitution, wrote:
"The federal constitution ... forbids Congress ever to establish any
kind of religion, or to require any religious test to qualify any
officer in any department of federal government. Let a man be Pagan,
Turk, Jew, or Christian, he is eligible to any post in that government."
FOR EXAMPLE, be sure to read the letter from President James Madison to the Baptist churches
on Neals' Creek and on Black Creek, North Carolina, in which the President wrote about his
February 28, 1811, veto of a bill passed by Congress and the Constitution's guarantee:
"I have received fellow Citizens your address, approving my Objection to the
bill containing a grant of public land, to the Baptist Church at Salem Meeting House Mississippi
Territory. Having always regarded the practical distinction between Religion and Civil Government
as essential to the purity of both, and as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States,
I could not have otherwise discharged my duty on the occasion which presented itself."
This site has a section devoted to selected questions which are posted
in the "Your Questions Answered" section as listed below.
Many answers to basic questions relating to religion and government are already in the book America's Real Religion
BRAND NEW ESSAY: Simpson v. Chesterfield County (Marsh v. Chambers),
by Gene Garman, is now posted in the list of essays below. This essay rebuts the Fourth Circuit
Court and U.S. Supreme Court opinions which unconstitutionally allow legislative chaplains.
Read Gene Garman's essay in the May/Jun 1999 issue of Liberty magazine. It documents Justice William H. Rehnquist's abuse of the Establishment Clause and its history. Click on the following url:
http://www.libertymagazine.org/article/articleview/162/1/41
