IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD

Q: Is the phrase which dates the Constitution a declaration and profession of religious faith--a specific acknowledgement of God--by the Founding Fathers?

A: Dianne, the general calendar used in 1787 in Britain and America was introduced in 1582 by Roman Catholic Pope Gregory XIII. It was common for the phrase "in the year of our Lord" to be used in dating all kinds of religious and secular or legal documents. For instance, the formal probate statement which in 1809 validated the last will of Thomas Paine uses the same terminology as used in dating the Constitution. The words "in the year of our Lord" were merely commonplace terminology used in the dating of documents. In 1787 and 1809 the phrase was a commonly worded affirmation of a date according to the Christian calendar--a historical hangover from the past when church and state were united and Christianity was established and imposed by law. It was precisely that kind of past relationship which the Founding Fathers and the majority of Americans rejected when they adopted the Constitution and the First Amendment. Nevertheless, the Gregorian calendar determines the year (A.D. or B.C) in relation to the birth of Jesus; therefore, use of "Lord" obviously and specifically refers to Jesus, not God. Today we normally use simply the date of the year itself (1998). Both ways utilize the Christian calendar; but, use of the Christian calendar date is not a profession of faith today anymore than it was in 1787 because Americans are free to believe whatever they choose in regard to religion.

Thus, any attempt to use the phrase "our Lord" as proof of belief in God, the doctrine of the trinity, or the proposition that Jesus is Lord, by everyone who signs their name to a document dated in terms recognizing the Christian calendar, is obviously invalid. Some who used those commonplace terms were Christian, but some were not. Founding Father Benjamin Franklin was a deist; use of the "our Lord" terminology by which the Constitution was dated was not a profession of religious faith by him and did not make him a Christian. In other words, if you insist that "our Lord" is a profession of belief in Jesus as Lord, then everyone who signs a document using such terminology is--by your test--a Christian. However, the terms "our Lord" obviously did not apply to everyone who signed documents using the phrase "in the year of our Lord" because, for example, Franklin was not a Christian. The Founding Fathers (Article 6) made it clear that in America there would be "no religious test." The dating terminology was common wording for secular and legal documents, regardless of the religious persuasion of the person about whom the document involved.