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18. Church and State: Rules of Coexistence

23. "A Hateful Oligarchy of Sex"

THE NEW CHRISTIAN RIGHT: STRATEGY FOR THE NINETIES

11. A Magazine of Religious Freedom Vol. 87, No. 6 ovember/December, 1992 combat—that's change, all parents and/or churches to From The Editor right," says Buchanan, "but it operate religious schools, and Verbal Toxic Waste is not the change America has not named either of his Robert L. Dale I'm listening to Pat wants . . . it is not the kind of daughters Hildegarde*.— Chairman. Editorial Board Robertson deliver a sermon in change we can tolerate in a R.R.H. Roland R. Hegstad the Astrodome. The occasion, nation that we still call 's Editor of course: the Republican country." *(In German, battle maiden.) Clifford Goldstein Convention. And I'm Does anyone in his or her Associate Editor learning something. The devil right mind actually believe From Our Readers Loleta Thomas Bailey isn't named Satan; he is these charges? Or Republican Managing Editor named Clinton. (Up go the whip Newt Gingrich's claim "Whatever Happened James A. Cavil "Knock 'em Flat, Pat," that Democrats have a to Gog?" Copy Editor posters.) The campaign "Woody Allen plank" in their Clifford Goldstein's article before us, I'm assured, is not Leo Ranzolin platform? That Allen's discusses how elements Robert S. Folkenherg just for the presidency; it is for "having non-incest with a of the conservative evangelical A.C. McClure the future of America. And non-daughter to whom he right have attempted to shape Consulting Editors that future, it develops, is was a non-father because they U.S. foreign policy based on Vernon Alger dependent on the health of were a non-family fits the their interpretations of biblical Karnik Doukmetzian the American family. Democratic platform prophecies; specifically, that Richard Fenn Other speakers join Darrel Huenergardt perfectly"? Democrats, the nation of Magog and its Ted Jones Robertson in linking family Gingrich added, "have no allies, which Ezekiel proph- Clayton Pritchett values with the Republican concept of families." esied were going to launch a John Stevens Party. (And here I've been Lewis Stout Such defamatory hyper- vicious war against Israel, Adrian Westney, Sr. linking the Republican Party bole is nothing less than were really the Consultants with the declining value of the verbal toxic waste. And now and its eastern bloc allies. American dollar!) If Bush's Gary M. Ross dollops of it will be dumped In reviewing the errors in U.S. Congress Liaison concerns for the economic on the character of those interpretation made by the and moral well-being of the opposing so-called "volun- evangelicals, your article Mitchell A. Tyner American home are as Legal Advisor tary" in public schools overlooked the fact that they profound as speaker after or government aid for have been correct in all Harry Knox speaker has been saying, Designer parochial schools—both of their interpretations but one: where in the world has the which will be by-products, we that the predicted invasion of George Crumley president been for the past Treasurer are assured, of the Bush- Israel was to be a physical one, four years? Quayle ticket. replete with guns and missiles. Liberty is a publication of the Erstwhile Rightist Republi- Politics as usual? If so, may The Jews made the same Seventh-day Adventist Church. can presidential candidate God save us from politicians. mistake in their belief that the Published and copyrighted © 1992 Patrick J. Buchanan describes And this sentiment, let Patrick Messiah was to be an earthly by the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, 12501 Old the "agenda Clinton and Buchanan observe, is enter- king who would annihilate Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD Clinton would impose on 20904-6600. Address corrections tained by one who is against their enemies. only: Liberty, 55 West Oak Ridge America—abortion on abortion on demand, believes The war predicted by Drive, Hagerstown, Maryland 21740. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. demand, a litmus test for the both parties have their Ezekiel and other prophets Supreme Court, homosexual Printed bimonthly by the Review agendas for would-be was the war waged against the and Herald Publishing Assn., 55 rights, discrimination against Supreme Court justices, kingdom of God by atheistic West Oak Ridge Drive, Hagerstown, MD 21740. Subscription price: US religious schools, women in considers practicing homo- $6.95 per year. Single copy: US $1.50. Price may vary where sexuals and adulterers alike to national currencies differ. be sinners in need of God's Vol. 87, No.6, November/December, 1992. Postmaster: Address mercy, supports the right of correction requested.

COVER ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID CHEN

2 LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 PER S P E CT I V E

Communism, with its torture and other critical issues that Rights, after reading this theocracy dominated republic and imprisonment of the Christian community is article by Albert Blaustein I (Ireland), and military believers and suppression of called to support. We must can concur with Mr. despotism (Algeria). any forms of worship, work to ensure that our cities, Hamilton's fear of mindless Well written constitutions reminiscent of the persecu- states, and nation are man- "regulations of every species enumerating a plethora of tion of the Christians by the aged by those who can work of personal and private rights do not guarantee Roman emperor Nero. It effectively on these issues. concerns." Mr. Blaustein's liberty. I would much rather may also include the philo- Without us, those who yearning to micro-manage live in a nation with positive sophical war being waged by share different values (some- every aspect of a society is the and gradually developing the so-called material times disguised as "Christian" greatest threat to national and traditions of freedom and humanist philosophy. or "family" values) will be individual liberty. liberty than in a country Your article states that the winning the elections, setting Lamentably, while he which writes about health Communist system destroyed the public agenda, and points out the merits of the care, education, economic, itself. You overlook the role governing. Soviet, Mexican, Indian, Irish, and social justice and in fact of God in that destruction DAVID G. HUNT, Congres- and Algerian constitutions he represses, tortures, and kills its which, again, was a spiritual sional Aide fails to note that these own citizens in an attempt to one. It is important to note Board Member, American documents have never secure power for a ruling elite. that the war is not over. The Baptist Churches, USA adequately insured the MICHAEL TOMLINSON, religious conversion of Russia Rochester, freedoms of the peoples they Pastor continues. represent. These nations are Texarkana Seventh-thy JACINTA M. IEZZI "The Decade of excellent examples of Adventist Church Melbourne, Florida Constitutionalism" totalitarian dictatorships Texarkana, Texas While Alexander Hamilton (Soviet Union), institutional- "God Is My Campaign was not correct in his opposi- ized bureaucratic autocracies "The Right Conclusion" Manager" Oh? tion to the American Bill of (Mexico and India), a I read with interest Tempe, Thanks for this article on Arizona Mayor Harry E. religion and politics by Oliver Mitchell's comments on page Thomas. I heartily agree that DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES 3 of your July-August issue. Christians should not identify Sometimes it may be easier God with a particular political to understand the importance party or candidate. rr he God-given right of religious liberty is best exer- of the separation of church I live and work in the cised when church and state are separate. and state from a political worlds of both politics and Government is God's agency to protect individual standpoint, than for the religion. While Mr. Thomas rights and to conduct civil affairs; in exercising these Christian who finds it hard to concludes that "the mixture responsibilities, officials are entitled to respect and coop- separate from a worldly of religion and partisan eration. society. politics is a dangerous brew," Religious liberty entails freedom of conscience: to wor- I was thrilled to learn that I would argue that religious ship or not to worship; to profess, practice and promulgate Clifford Goldstein has joined Christians can—and religious beliefs or to change them. In exercising these your team as associate editor. should—play an important rights, however, one must respect the equivalent rights of What a wise choice. God bless role in partisan politics. all others. you, Mr. Goldstein. We must actively support Attempts to unite church and state are opposed to the RALPH A. WILLARD and elect officials who care interests of each, subversive of human rights and poten- Lancaster, Massachusetts deeply about justice, peace, tially persecuting in character; to oppose union, lawfully religious liberty, human and and honorably, is not only the citizen's dutybut the essence civil rights, the environment, of the Golden rule—to treat others as one wishes to be treated.

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 3 PER SPECT I VE

The Road to Victory mobilize" voters. It was hard to tell whether First, all Christian pro- had donned the lifers and their precincts were mantle of politics or politics to be identified. Then they had garbed itself in the clothes were to be educated in how to of the ecclesia. But when the vote. "Christians," said Christian Coalition's Second Rodgers, "don't vote very Annual Road to Victory ..., 4„.. intelligently. If they knew Conference in Virginia Beach what Mr. X really believed had echoed to the last bit of 400/ they wouldn't vote for him." right-wing jingoism, one As to mobilizing, "an increase thing was clear: a substantial in voter turnout by 5 to 20 segment of conservative lirkiie percent," he said, "can bring Christianity has hitched its significant change." And wagon, not to the star of ... there would be no religious Bethlehem, but to the . r discrimination on this activist Republican Party elephant. . v./ level. "We need Catholics, And if that will not suffice charismatics, and Jews," to get them to the halls of George Bush addressing the conference. Rogers emphasized, "and we power in Washington, D.C., James Baker kept the talk out of prime time. have all of these in our by Inauguration Day, they will operation." be back. Christian Coalition be votes), and elsewhere outside Also part of the victory The conference was billed scheduled too late to make the the Southern Baptist South. strategy a letter, endorsing as the biggest "strategy and evening prime-time news- Such considerations, candidates, to be sent to planning session of the pro- casts, and the subsequent however, did not dilute the 175,000 Protestant and family movement of 1992." toning down of the family jingoism of the Virginia Beach Roman Catholic churches and Its timing, September 10-12, values theme as the presiden- gathering. And behind the clergy, and 40 million voter and the presence of Republi- tial contest entered its stretch facade of anti-abortion, anti- guides to be inserted in can luminaries—President drive. The linkage of politics homosexual, anti-secular church bulletins on the George Bush, former drug and religion implicit in the humanist rhetoric, speakers Sunday preceding the czar William Bennett, Iran- Republican Party platform presented the program for V- election. On the guides would Contra(versial) Oliver North, was not playing well in Day, November 3. Guy be (1) party affiliation of a and U.S. Secretary of Educa- Peoria—and more important Rodgers, national field candidate, (2) his public tion Lamar Alexander— from a political viewpoint, in director of the Christian statements, and (3) his voting pointed to the 1,500 delegates' (54 electoral votes), Coalition, outlined a strategy record. immediate objective: the in New York (33 electoral to "identify, educate, and Said Rodgers, "God is election of George Bush. taking us to a point in the Ironically, the pro-family 1990s where we will need to emphasis of the Republican learn how to govern." campaign was proving to be somewhat less than the The New Fascists success that party strategists YA71.:1,',/4.41•!.: Prominent in the new JUN had envisioned. Two events BECOME A CHRISTMN order, speakers made clear, signaled their growing would be a Supreme Court caution: Republican campaign M that would dismantle the wall manager Jim Baker's insis- of separation between church tence that Bush's speech to the Bumper sticker displays theology. and state. Roman Catholic What would Jefferson think?

4 LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 P E R S P E T I V E

layman Keith Fournier, And what if Bush is not executive director of Pat reelected in November? Or if Robertson's American Center the Republican Party backs for Law and Justice, a branch away from its engagement of the Christian Coalition, with the Christian Coalition? compared the wall of separa- Robertson promised the tion to the Berlin Wall. "The standing, roaring, clapping wall of separation between crowd, "We'll be back in church and state," he said, 1993. We'll be back in 1994. "was erected by secular We'll be back in 1995. We'll humanists and other enemies be back in 1996. We'll be of religious freedom. It has to back in 1997. We'll be back in come down. It is more of a 1998. We'll be back in 1999. threat to society than the We'll be back until we win it Berlin Wall ever was." all!" Lamenting the recent They just might. support for the wall evinced by a majority of justices, Fournier said, "This Court is addressing the faithful: This report was compiled from not the kind we wanted." He "We'll be back until we win it all!" notes taken by G. Edward Reid, called those who opposed the Esq., on assignment for Liberty Christian Coalition's views only because of Religious 1980s didn't die; it just at the Road to Victory "the new Fascists." Right influence. changed its name to Christian Conference. The highlight of the "In recent weeks," Bush Coalition. conference was, of course, told the enthusiastic crowd, Said Robertson, "God George Bush's talk. Its timing, "you and I have been accused showed me in December 1991 Moving? 7:40 p.m.-10 minutes after of focusing our energies on that He was going to bless the the last network news what has been called a narrow, Christian Coalition beyond Please notify us 4 weeks in advance programs and well past the irrelevant topic—the Ameri- our wildest expectations. early week-end deadlines of can family. Well, I believe it is "Before the year 2000," Name many newspapers—was, our critics who are guilty of Robertson predicted, "the reportedly, engineered by tunnel vision because, in my Christian Coalition will be the Address (new, if for change of address) James Baker, who was worried mind, the family is at the most powerful organization in about how the president's center of America—a source America." City appearance at the Road to of strength for us as individu- Robertson also had a Victory Conference would als and for America as a warning for enemies of the State Zip play among the more nation." coalition. Alluding to an moderate electorate. incident in the book of Esther, To subscribe to Liberty check rate below and fill Though avoiding the harsh The New Right in he said, "Haman erected in your name and address above. Payment must rhetoric of the New Right, the the Nineties gallows for God's people, but accompany order. president did emphasize The Road to Victory he was hung on them ❑ 1 year $6.95 "family values" at this forum, Conference revealed, in himself." He added, "The Mail to: a theme in the party platform Robertson's words, that enemies of religious freedom Liberty subscriptions, 55 West Oak Ridge Drive, "reports of the demise of the have erected gallows for us, Hagerstown, Maryland 21740. Christian Right have been but they will be hung on their ATTACH LABEL HERE for address change or greatly exaggerated." Clearly, own gallows." inquiry. If moving, list new address above. Note: your subscription expiration date (issue, the Moral Majority of the year) is given at upper right of label. Example: 0392L1 would end with third (May-June) issue of 1992.

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 5 n an analysis of newly elected President. George Bush's record

on civil religion published two years ago,' I questioned

I whether his brand of public religiosity would be corrective or

corrosive. Would it foster genuine personal and communal

while tempering the passionate interests of the worst

among us? Now, as the fourth year of his presidency ends, it is

apparent that he has not used his religious faith to unite us. In fact,

thanks partly to Bush, our pluralistic nation faces an era of •

church-state accommodation that could undo the principle of

governmental neutrality in religious matters. The Politics of

One must not misunders s critique of George

Bush's public religiosity. He has the same rights as all Americans

to express himself on religious matters, and it is unfair to insist that

How the President, he should exclude all religious language and imagery from his by Using Religion public discourse. Militant secularists hinder the cause of freedom for Political when they seek to isolate religious expression to the private

Purposes, realm. Bush's meetings with African-American clergy and visits to

Weakened Church- black churches following the Los Angeles riots are good examples

State Separation of how the resources of religion may be tapped to confront social problems. His attendance at worship services is a striking BY RICHARD V. PIERARD and refreshing contrast to 's. At least here is some

consistency between professed belief and actual practice.

6 LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 And certainly I do not deride the president's— His place on the ticket helped win back the disillu- nor any other American's—belief that God, for one sioned born-again types who were unsure about reason or another, has smiled on America. How- Bush's religious credentials and who had backed ever one regards the idea that our nation has a Pat Robertson in the 1988 primaries. privileged position in the esteem of heaven, one Marshaling behind Bush were the political lob- should recall that among the "self-evident truths" byists of America's two largest evangelical religious affirmed by our forefathers was the Creator's en- organizations, the Southern Baptist Convention dowment of mankind with "unalienable rights." and the National Association of Evangelicals. Both For this reason, America has enjoyed the esteem, if have lobbying objectives in Washington that, on not of God, at least of the world. church-state affairs, are identical to the New Chris- The danger, then, is not from the president's tian Right's, and their leaders have ready access to public faith, but from its being exploited to the the Bush White House. Thus they have kept pres- extent that our hallowed American tradition of sure on the president's people to hold Bush to the religious liberty, symbolized by Jefferson's wall of straight-and-narrow of the Christian Right social separation between church and state, is jeopar- agenda. dized. GEORGE BUSH AND PUBLIC RELIGIOSITY In his vice presidential years Bush expressed himself openly, though on most occasions blandly, on religious themes, and as president he has done the same. Typical of comments that would cause few Americans concern was his statement on Au- gust 10, 1989, about the hostages in Lebanon: "I believe that prayer is the most important way to deal with the human response to this tragic situa- tion. I believe in prayer. It gives us strength in times of need. It gives us hope in times of despair. It gives us optimism in times of opportunity. So I ask again that each of you join me this Sunday in saying a special prayer for the American hostages, their families, and their friends."2 On December 12, however, speaking of the revolutions in Fastern , he observed: "For today, the times are on the side ofpeace, because the world increasingly is on the side of God."' This comment marked the transition toward the less benign civil religion that characterized the remain- der of his term. In January he began what was to become an annual pilgrimage to the National Religious Broad- THE EVANGELICALS AS casters convention. Before the cheering crowd, he ACCOMPLICES proclaimed: "There is no denying that America is a In the ignoble endeavor to recast the wall of religious nation." He argued that "political values separation into a "Berlin wall" that must be torn without moral values, a moral underpinning, can- down, the president's chief accomplices have been not sustain a people" and "while God can live Protestant evangelicals—a group that once without man, man cannot live without God." Bush staunchly defended church-state separation. Dur- equated these moral values with the NRB mem- ing the Reagan years, however, the New Christian bers' pet beliefs—coexistence (not separation) of Right mobilized the theologically conservative religion and government, religiously based child Dr. Richard V. evangelicals through hot-button issues like school care, adoption instead of abortion, educational Pierard is professor prayer, abortion, and public funding of parochial reforms, and voluntary school prayer—and lauded of history at schools. The result: their unqualified support ofthe the bold expressions of freedom and individual State Republican party and its unabashed antisepara- rights in Eastern Europe. He then repeated a line University in Terra tionist positions. Bush's choice of conservative from his December speech: "For today, the times Haute. Indiana. senator Dan Quayle appealed to the evangelicals. are on the side of peace because the world increas-

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 7 ingly is on the side of God"4—a statement that Clearly, from the moment the war started, Bush caused a little stir in the crumbling Communist depended on the conservative Protestants for sup- countries. port, and he was ready to pull out the civil religion Although he informed the graduating class at stops to achieve this. The day Operation Desert Jerry Falwell's Liberty University on May 12, 1990, Storm began, he summoned , who that "America not only is divinely blessed, America arrived at the White House about an hour before is divinely accountable,"' his understanding of ac- the attack was announced on national television. countability was ideologically defined. Examples The next morning military chaplains hastily orga- abound in his many civil religious performances, nized a religious service at Fort Myer, Virginia, such as the controversy over flag burning, the con- whose congregation included the Bushes, the tinual promotion of "voluntary" school prayer, Quayles, General Colin Powell, and much of the public funding for church-related child-care facili- Cabinet and White House staff. In a brief sermon ties, and vouchers, as well as the categorical rejec- Graham said that "there are times when we have to tion of any moves that might give even the appear- fight for peace" and the country's leaders "are ance of support for abortion. facing a crisis today as great as any leader in Ameri- can history has had to face." He expressed the hope, THE GULF WAR from the famous prayer of Lincoln, "that we will be The Persian Gulf conflict precipitated an effu- on God's side." An Army chorus sang "God Bless sion of civil religiosity. After challenging Saddam America," and the congregation joined in "Amaz- "America Hussein's seizure of Kuwait, he issued a call for ing Grace." No wonder the Washington Post la- prayer. He told worshipers in the Episcopalian beled him the "unofficial chaplain to the White is a nation church in Kennebunkport one Sunday that "these House."' founded are rather trying times, and right now I would Bush two weeks later told attendees at the Na- suggest we get our strength from being one nation tional Prayer Breakfast that "when Barbara and I under under God." At his side was his close friend Billy were there at that prayer service, we were doing only Graham, who endorsed this idea and appealed for what everyone in America was doing—praying for God." "that God will intervene and bring peace to peace." He reminded the audience that "America that troubled region."6 is a nation founded under God" and that "from our As Operation Desert Shield proceeded through very beginnings we have relied upon His strength —George Bush the fall of 1990, religious leaders debated over re- and guidance in war and in peace." Bush had straint versus all-out action. Liberal Christians and learned that one could not be president of this peace-oriented evangelicals urged a go-slow policy, country without faith in God and knowing that the emphasizing the need to allow negotiations and nation is under God. It was clear to him "that God sanctions to have effect. Most other evangelicals is our rock and salvation, and we must trust Him and the neoconservatives favored forcefully evict- and keep faith in Him."'° ing the Iraqi dictator from Kuwait. On January 27 President Bush at the National Once Bush launched the war on January 16, the Religious Broadcasters convention delivered one of evangelicals, as well as the laity in mainline Protes- the most remarkable speeches in the history of civil tant and Catholic churches, overwhelmingly closed religion in America. Before a supportive audience, ranks behind him. One example was the service at he proclaimed that this was a just war. a large North Carolina church on the following "It is not Iraq against the ," he said. Sunday. An honor guard marched in carrying flags, "It's the regime of Saddam Hussein against the rest and the congregation recited the Pledge of Alle- of the world. Saddam tried to cast this conflict as a giance and sang "My Country, 'Tis of Thee." Then religious war. But it has nothing to do with religion the pastor declared: "I am so happy that God is here per se. It has, on the other hand, everything to do this evening and He is the captain of our wonderful with what religion embodies—good versus evil, country. Are you not [glad] also?" His hearers right versus wrong, human dignity and freedom thundered back, "Amen!" The children's choir versus tyranny and oppression. The war in the Gulf sang "This Is My Country."' is not a Christian war, a Jewish war, or a Muslim Rejecting the call for a ceasefire, the Southern war—it is a just war. And it is a war in which good Baptist Convention's Richard Land said "the crite- will prevail." ria laid down for conduct of a just war have been More serious was his appeal to civil religion. He met." Robert Dugan informed his NAE constitu- assured the audience that "we will prevail" because ency that Bush had made "a clear and compelling ofthe finest Armed Forces any country has ever had case that the war against Iraq does meet the just-war and because ofthe support ofthe American people, criteria."' who are "armed with a trust in God and in the

8 LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 principles that make men free." America has always country."15 been a religious nation, and perhaps never more Probably never had a president so consciously than now. "Just look at the last several weeks. exploited public religiosity to rally a divided nation Never had a Churches, synagogues, and mosques reporting behind him as was done during the Gulf war. record attendance at services. Chapels packed Christian Century editor James Wall recognized president so during working hours as Americans stop in for a that this explosion of moral rectitude concealed the moment or two. Why? To pray for peace." real reason for the conflict: concern about the consciously The support and prayers of so many, he said, industrialized world's oil supply. "It is obvious that make it clear to our enemies what America thinks if Kuwait's major export were brussels sprouts our exploited about the war. "We know that this is a just war. And reaction would have been far less vigorous." Ro- we know that, God willing, this is a war we will win." man Catholic journalist Dale Vree went even fur- public Echoing lines from earlier speeches, he affirmed ther, characterizing the war as "tailor-made for that he believed "more than ever that one cannot be moral relativists" and as "the triumph of the Ray- religiosity. America's president without trust in God," and boyphilosophy." The impatient administration, he that "times will soon be on the side of peace because said, "threw self-control to the winds and suc- the world is overwhelmingly on the side of God."" cumbed to violence . . . with a self-righteousness The flurry of civil religiosity during this week that would make the corner prostitute blush."" continued with the proclamation of Sunday, Feb- ruary 3, as a . Drawing upon THE EVANGELICALS' REWARD the precedent of Lincoln, Bush reaffirmed the cus- In gratitude for their loyalty, President Bush tomary themes of the nation under God, His rich honored both the Southern Baptists and the Na- blessings on America, its dependence on Him for tional Association of Evangelicals with addresses at strength and guidance, and participation in a war in their next conventions. In June, speaking to the which "our cause is moral and just." He asked all SBC in Atlanta, he reaffirmed his civil religion Americans to "unite in humble and contrite prayer themes. He said that he found guidance and com- to . . . God," that He will grant us "continued fort in prayer during the Gulf war, and with three strength and guidance" and "watch over and sup- National Days of Thanksgiving and Prayer, the port the courageous members of our Armed nation thanked God for sustaining it through the Forces, their loving families, as well as the forces of crisis. Insisting that "the fundamental pillars sup- those nations that have joined the coalition to porting our society [are] our families and our liberate Kuwait and to deter further Iraqi aggres- faith,"—a theme the Republican Party was to make sion."" the keystone of their presidential campaign—he This appeal was followed by a radio address to called for a prayer amendment to strengthen the the nation amplifying the concerns of the special social fabric, legislation allowing "choice" in child day of prayer. Bush urged "Americans of every care and schooling, a tough crime bill, a ban on creed" to "turn to our greatest power and unite abortions, and restoring decency and virtue to the together in prayer." He then enumerated seven moral vocabulary. As one nation under God, things people should pray for—the safety of the America "reconciles diversity of faith with unity of troops, those who make the supreme sacrifice, purpose," while in war and peace "faith provides those who are held prisoner, the families of those our solace, our shield, and our shelter." God is our who serve, the innocents caught up in this war, our refuge and strength, His light leads us forward, and nation, and finally peace—"peace, which passeth we should always pray for His guidance and grace.17 all understanding."" At the NAE convention in Chicago the follow- After the triumph, President Bush proclaimed ing March, he affirmed the importance of prayer in April 5-7, 1991, as "National Days of Thanksgiv- his life and thanked the group for their prayers. ing." He credited God for answering the prayers of Pointing out that "Americans are the most religious millions. "It is fitting that we give thanks to our people on earth," and that they "have always in- heavenly Father, our help and shield, for His mercy stinctively sensed that God's purpose was bound up and protection."" Then, at Houston's St. Martin's with the cause of liberty," he criticized the "myo- Episcopal Church he prayed, his voice shaking with pia" that "seems to believe that freedom of religion emotion: "Dear God, we humbly give You our requires government to keep our lives free from heartfelt thanks. We thank You for bringing the religion." Because "our government was founded war to a quick end. We thank You for sparing the on faith," public school children have a right to lives of so many of our men and women who went voluntary prayer. The same is true for parental to the Gulf We ask You to bring comfort to the choice in child care and schooling. Sustained by the families of those who gave their lives for their confidence that in serving others and promoting

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 9 the values of faith, family, and life one serves God as known to others. But George Bush's incursions well, Americans can "move our country forward in into civil religion have had two adverse conse- faith."18 quences. First, by backing the "cooperation be- God has tween church and state" agenda of the Christian GOD AND THE COLD WAR Right, he has contributed to the eroding wall of been In his 1992 State of the Union message, Presi- separation between church and state—and, ironi- dent Bush declared: "By the grace of God, America cally, in so doing, has bushwhacked the foundation converted won the Cold war." Before the NAE he described of the very religious freedom that many of the the Cold war as "a struggle for the mind of man." Christian Right believe merits God's blessings on into an He said, "On one side was a system dedicated to our land. Second, by converting God into an denying the life of the spirit and celebrating the instrument of national policy, he has misused the instrument omnipotence ofthe state. On the other was a system Deity. God may judge the nation, he believes, founded on a profound truth, that our Creator has because of its failure to follow through on a conser- of national endowed His children with inalienable rights that vative, "pro-family" social agenda. One is left to no government can destroy." wonder just where the environmental problems, policy. Now, "we can say confidently, Americans won the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, the the Cold war. We won it by standing for what's export of jobs and widespread unemployment, and right.... We asked for God's help. And now in this the burning racial and ethnic questions of the day shining outcome, in this magnificent triumph of rank in the Divinity's concern. Or whether they good over evil, we should thank God." He also gave rank at all. credit for the victory to people like those in the Pride, with its general portion of national hu- audience who smuggled Bibles behind the Iron bris, goeth before the fall, and our nation is certainly Curtain, helped to resettle refugees fleeing oppres- poised on the brink of disaster. Perhaps the God sion, and brought theological training where it was who has so blessed America, as President Bush and forbidden. And their work continues "to ensure his evangelical followers believe, will place under that the vacuum left by Communism's demise is judgment all who have used Him as the logo for filled by faith.',20 their political ambitions. At the NRB on January 27, not only did Bush We shall see. boast about the victory in the Persian Gulf war and the triumph of "freedom" through the former So- FOOTNOTES viet bloc, but also he used a phrase that possibly 1 "Public Religion in a Kinder, Gentler America," Liberty, could be regarded as the most far-reaching civil March-April 1990, pp. 3-6. religion statement ever made by a twentieth-cen- 2 Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George Bush (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, tury chief executive: "I want to thank you for help- 1989), p. 1078. ing America, as Christ ordained, to be 'a light unto Ibid., p. 1697. the world.'"21 4 Ibid., pp. 123-125. Ibid., p. 656. All other presidential practitioners of civil reli- 6 National and International Religion Report 4 (Sept. 10, gion had portrayed God in a deistic or generic sense, 1990): 1, 2. a Supreme Being whose role in the founding of the 7 Frederick Herzog, "Betet fiir den Sieg," Evangelische Kommentare 24 (May 1991): 257, 258. The author, a Duke nation could be appreciated and His grace and University professor, also noted that another North Carolina favor appropriated by all Americans (except athe- church posted a banner on its signboard that read: "Pray for ists, of course). But to identify the country as victory and only then for peace." 8 Christian Centuty108, No. 7, (Feb. 27,1991): 225; New York "Christ-ordained" narrows the Deity significantly Times, Feb. 15, 1991, p. A9. and excludes from the civil religion consensus Jews, 9 National and International Religion Report 5 (Jan. 28,1991): Muslims, and others who do not recognize Christ's 1; Washington Post, Jan. 18, 1991, p. C3. 1° Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (Washing- divinity. Whether Mr. Bush realized how far he had ton, D.C.: Government Printing Office), Jan. 31,1991, p.101. transgressed the bounds of American civil religion '1 Ibid., Jan. 28, 1991, pp. 87-89. is uncertain, but the comment reveals how 12 Ibid., Feb. 1, 1991, p. 116. Ibid., Feb. 2, 1991, p. 117. trivialized the Deity had become in the hands of an ' 4 Ibid., March 7, 1991, p. 263. activist "civil religion president." 15 Ibid., April 7, 1991, p. 403. 16 Christian Century 108, No. 5, (Feb. 6-13, 1991): 133; "The Triumph of the P/ayboyPhilosophy in the Persian Gulf," New POLITICAL LOGO Oxford Review 58 (April 1991): 5. As I expressed in the beginning, the problem is '7 Weekly Compilation, June 6, 1991, pp. 726-728. not George Bush's public faith. I welcome his will- 's Ibid., March 3, 1992, pp. 388-391. 19 Ibid., Jan. 28, 1992, p. 170. ingness to express his religious views openly. By so 20 Ibid., March 3, 1992, pp. 389, 390. doing he reinforces our freedom to make our faith 2' Ibid., Jan. 27, 1992, p. 165.

10 LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 THE NEVI CHRISTIAN RIGHT STRATEGY FOR THE NINETIES

BY CLIFFORD GOLDSTEIN

When the New Christian Right entered poli-

tics more than a decade ago, it sought to purify

the Holy Land (America) from political infi-

delity. Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Tim

LaHaye preached a political gospel in which

conservative Republicanism became a creed,

and in which unbelievers were threatened

with the electoral

sword. Their or- On lie political

ganizations corn- maturing of

manded million- the evangelicals

dollar budgets,

their rallies drew hundreds of thousands of

participants, including appearances by the

president himself, and the hoofbeats of their

onslaught echoed through the corridors of

power. The fundamentalists went from being

an almost irrelevant fringe to what Martin E.

Marty said was the "most assertive position in

American politics."

What, then, happened?

Today, Jerry Falwell, once the scourge of

liberals, feminists, humanists, homosexuals, Clifford Goldstein is associate editor Bolsheviks, Democrats, and atheists, is busy of LIBERTY. watering down the evangelical postulates of Liberty University in order to win $60 million in tax money for his financially floundering school.' New Chris- tian Right organizations such as the National tar Sins Vill Christian Action Council, the Moral Majority, and the Freedom Council, each founded to "save Find Yu Out Jay America," couldn't save themselves: all have gone belly-up, along with such publications as the Fun- espite attempts to tone down the damentalist Journal and Conservative Digest. The Christian rhetoric, some New Right televangelist scandals helped sink contributions to D activists occasionally slip up. Recently the New Right political juggernaut faster than the American electorate sank Pat Robertson's 1988 Jay Grimstead, chairman of the New Right presidential campaign. And even after 12 years of California Activist's Network, mailed a letter to Reagan and Bush, the New Right, once dubbed "the centerpiece of the conservative movement,"2 ap- William B. Allen, a political science professor pears to have backslidden into political perdition. running for the U.S. Senate against conservative Appearances, however, can be deceiving. Far Bill Dannemeyer. Grimstead warned that "we are from being defunct, the New Christian Right is even more deeply entrenched into the American calling upon you in the name of Jesus Christ, the political system than it was in the 1980s. King of the universe, to immediately step down "The Evangelical Right is back," wrote Thomas Atwood, editor of Policy Review, "better organized from this foolish attempt at the Senate seat and to for state and local politics and less dependent upon publicly announce that you are throwing your highly visible national leaders, and more effective because it works through broader based organiza- weight and your campaign behind the tions not explicitly identified with evangelical- Dannemeyer effort for victory." If Allen refused ism."' to retreat from his "foolish path"—this "political "In the 1980s," says political scientist Matthew Moen, "the New Right altered the public dialogue abortion that can aid only the forces of dark- and the congressional debate. In the nineties, it is ness"—Grimstead warned that besides political quietly infiltrating the power structure in order to gain influence in ways that it wasn't able to previ- consequences, Allen might face heavenly ones as ously. And in some respects, with this new strategy, well. it is stronger now than ever before."4 "We suspect," Grimstead prophesied, "that A new strategy was needed. Despite the over- night proliferation of an alphabet soup of New God Himself will make efforts to discipline you Right organizations (NICPAC, ACTV, NCAC, and judge this action of yours however He sees fit. CLEAR-TV, CV, CWA, CSFC, FCPAC, CMA, NCAP, EF, AFC, NPFC), massive fund-raising As anyone who has been disciplined by our campaigns, and intense lobbying in Washington, heavenly Father can tell you, He can deal very D.C., the New Right for the 1980s and early 1990s achieved none of its major legislation, except, per- forcibly with us."* haps, defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment. It Though Grimstead claimed the letter was a managed to get the prayer-in-school amendment "rough draft," and later mailed a revision without onto the Senate floor (no small feat), but was unable to translate it, and much of anything else the threats, the letter revealed that, despite their substantive, into victories. Though the New Right outward political conversion, the New Right's supported Ronald Reagan, who convincingly ech- oed many of its platitudes (it loved, for example, his heart hasn't changed.—C.G. 1983 "evil empire" speech in Orlando) and who knighted the movement with legitimacy, Reagan *Quoted in Harper's, May 1992, p. 24. did not pursue the New Right's political agenda with the holy zeal that they had expected. He didn't produce a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, didn't get legislated prayer into school, didn't curtail the rights of homosexuals. He rarely

12 LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 even went to church. His successor, blue-blooded toned down the rhetoric. "A new cadre has come in Episcopalian George Bush, who uttered some of now," says Moen, "who have the savvy and sophis- the same platitudes as Reagan (though not as con- tication that they were once lacking." vincingly), did even less. Jimmy Swaggart's warning to his political oppo- "Some affiliated with the Religious Right," nents ("You have not set yourself against the so- wrote Tom Roberts, "argue that aside from the called moral McCarthyites; you have not set your- notable exception of conservative appointments to self against the hick fundamentalists—you have set the judicial system, including the Supreme Court, yourself against God!"12) is being replaced with a evangelicals have seen few rewards for their ef- more sophisticated, less sectarian approach. In- forts."' stead of calling the abortion struggle a battle to stop On April 24,1990, for example, representatives "this national Holocaust from bringing down the ofthe Gay and Lesbian Task Force, at the invitation unmitigated wrath of God upon this sin-laden of the White House, stood in the Oval Office for the iniquitous nation," the New Right speaks of "the signing of the "hate crimes" bill." More than a rights of the unborn"; school prayer is now "equal decade after the New Right promised to bring opportunity" for religious values; and tuition tax morality to America, George Bush was bringing credits have become "freedom of choice" for reli- gays to the White House! Obviously, whatever the Besides gious education. New Christian Right did in the 1980s didn't work. Besides replacing the wrath-of-God bombast And considering the tactics, no wonder. No replacing the for more acceptable terminology, the New Right matter how righteous some of their causes, their has refocused its objectives. Realizing that it can't methods often weren't, and it made bad press. wrath-of-God win in Congress or the White House, at least for Christian Voice published its infamous Candi- now, it is quietly becoming involved in local, date's Biblical Scorecard, which kept a record of bombast county, and state politics instead. which incumbents registered a "pro-biblical vote" Said Ralph Reed, director of Pat Robertson's on everything from a balanced budget amendment for more Christian Coalition, "We tried to charge Washing- to the Nicaraguan "freedom fighters."' Fund- ton when we should have been focusing on the raising hysteria (one letter that warned that dona- acceptable states. The real battles of concern to Christians are tions "may well be the difference between America in neighborhoods, school boards, city councils, and surviving and America being destroyed by God's terminology, state legislatures."13 wrath—perhaps through nuclear fire and brim- Unlike the defunct Moral Majority and Free- stone,") often backfired. Indiana Moral Majority the New dom Council, the Christian Coalition is spearhead- leader Greg Dixon's prayer "hit list,"9 and Baptist ing the New Right political gospel at the local level, minister W. A. Criswell's statement that "this no- Right has where it promotes "Christian values through a tion of separation of church and state was the network of state affiliates and county chapters."14 figment of some infidel's imagination" m—these refocused its Using a mailing list of 1.8 million names left over and similar examples ofhyperbole turned off many from Robertson's last presidential bid, the organi- Americans, who still harbor a healthy suspicion of objectives. zation already has tens of thousands of members mixing religion and politics. When the New and, according to Christian Coalition literature, is Right's most public figure, Pat Robertson, publicly growing. accused George Bush of engineering Jimmy Recent California political victories seem to vin- Swaggart's sexual transgression to discredit dicate this grass-roots thrust. In the early 1990s the Robertson's campaign, it became obvious that the New Right gained control of half the county Re- New Christian Right desperately needed a massive publican central committees, as well as the state political and public relations overhaul. board. In San Diego County 60 New Right activists, "Evangelicals need to become students of the some running as "stealth candidates," won seats on political process," said Robert Dugan, director of the school board, water board, and city council in the Washington Office of the National Association November 1990. Conservative evangelicals left of Evangelicals. "They need to move to greater over from Pat Robertson's campaign not only re- sophistication with integrity and knowledge."" main in the state's Republican structure but are They are. Bible-thumpers fresh from the corn working to take it over. patch, breathing hellfire and brimstone against "Following the 1988 elections," said an article in legislators who didn't pass "Bible-based" laws, are Church and State, "Robertson's cadre took over the slowly being replaced by more politically astute California Republican Assembly CRA, a conserva- conservatives working behind the scenes to pro- tive party unit. The CRA, in alliance with Young mote the same agenda as the Bible-thumpers, but Americans for Freedom, College Republicans, and without all the hellfire and damnation. They have a group of right-wing officials . . . plotted the

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 13 takeover of the county Republican committees and by the Religious Right."2° Pat Buchanan's fiery ultimately the state board." oratory, calling the Democratic convention a mas- Wrote Guy Rodgers, national field director of querade ball, where "20,000 radicals and liberals the Christian Coalition, "Christians everywhere came dressed up as moderates and centrists, in the agree that it is time for such excellence [in political greatest single exhibition of cross-dressing in power], for the message is spreading like a prairie American political history,"21 also reveals the New fire. We now have some 325 local chapters in 42 Right's influence on the Republican Party. states, a 500 percent growth rate in 1991 alone. In a sense, the title New Christian Right is a Christians by the thousands are getting serious misnomer: it's not so new (it started in the 1970s) or about impacting the arena of public policy."16 so Christian (its tactics have hardly been Christlike) "What Christians have got to do is take back this or so right (it holds some dangerous views of country, one precinct at a time, one neighborhood Another church-state separation). It's only smarter. at a time, one state at a time," says Ralph Reed. "I Like David Duke, who shed his Ku Klux Klan honestly believe that in my lifetime we will see a boost to the hood for a three-piece suit and won a seat in the country once again governed by Christians."" Louisiana state legislature, the evangelicals are mas- This low-key approach at the grass-roots level is New Right tering the game. They now understand, among not attracting as much hostile media attention as other things, that publicly threatening the wrath of did hordes of preachers in Washington shouting successes can God on those who support welfare payments to the Bible verses and declaring "We're going to take over poor or who object to tuition tax credits just won't for Jesus! Hallelujah!" Perhaps the best advantage be found in cut it in twentieth-century America. They are more to this coalition method is that numerous indepen- careful, sophisticated, and tactful than they were in dent groups dispersed over the nation are much the more the 1980s, and therefore they are more dangerous. harder to track than a few highly visible ones in Indeed, this new, low-key, grass-roots strategy re- Washington. conservative veals that, far from being dead, the New Christian "We're flying below radar," said Reed. Right—in the lowest sense of the phrase—has been 's Family Research Council, the federal "born again." political lobbying arm of his nationwide Focus on FOOTNOTES the Family organization, is another example of the judiciary. ' Pamela Maize Harris, "Did Jerry Falwell Sell Out the Store new quiet involvement in politics. "Eighteen years for Tax-Free Bonds?" LIBERTY, Sept.-Oct. 1991, pp. 2-7. ago," Dobson said, "I was talking about the family Reagan and 2 Sidney Blumenthal, "The Righteous Empire," The New Republic, Oct. 22, 1984, p. 18. in the context of society, and that is the limit of my Thomas Atwood, "Through a Glass Darkly," Policy Review, public role now." According to spokesman Bush have Fall 1990, p. 44. Michael Jameson, Dobson "doesn't want media Quoted in Clifford Goldstein, "The New Christian Right: Born Again?" Shabbat Shalom, April-June 1991, p. 4. scrutiny."18 Dobson has been urging various orga- appointed Tom Roberts, "Religion in Politics: A Lower Profile in '92," nizations to form a coalition of pro-family groups, Religious News Service, Feb. 14, 1992, p. 3. telling "them to keep secret their participation in three fourths 6 R Evans and R. Nova, "Bush and the Gay Lobby," Washing- ton Post, May 25, 1990. the coalition and even that a coalition exists."I9 Candidate's Biblical Scorecard (Costa Mesa, Calif.: Christian Another boost to the New Right successes can be of the federal Voice, 1986). found in the more conservative federal judiciary. 8 Letter from Robert Grant's "Christian Voice," 1986. 9 William Bole, "Battle Escalates Over Proper Place of Reli- Reagan and Bush have appointed three fourths of judges now gion in Politics," Religious News Service, Aug. 1, 1986, p. 1. the federal judges now sitting. "Because the Su- Quoted in Jim Buie, "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammu- preme Court is now in the business of remanding sitting. nition," Church and State, Oct. 1984. " David Aikman, "Washington Scorecard," Christianity To- issues to the state," warns Matthew Moen, "the day, Oct. 21, 1989, p. 23. New Christian Right's attempt to organize at the 12 Jimmy Swaggart, Jan. 5, 1986. state level could be significant. We might be sur- " Quoted in "The Christian Coalition: Ganging Up on the prised to see what it will do in the 1990s." First Amendment," Church and State, April 1990, p. 12. 14 From a promotional pamphlet by the Christian Coalition, The surprise may come when Americans can't Chesapeake, Virginia. count on the courts, as they once could, to protect 15 Fred Clarkson, "California Dreamin'," Church and State, them from state laws that jeopardize their free- Oct. 1991, p. 5. 16 Guy Rodgers, "New Wave of Christian Activists on the doms. Scene," Christian American, March-April 1992, p. 23. Though the Christian Right doesn't have the ""Robertson's New Coalition Growing in Money and Mem- bership," Religious News Service, May 15, 1989, p. 1. country, it certainly has a hold on the Republican "18 Robert E. Boczkiewicz, "Dobson Organization Aiding the Party, as is documented in the 1992 Republican Formation of Pro-Family Coalitions," Religious News Service, National Convention party platform. "If I didn't Feb. 24, 1989, p. 2. know any better," said New Right activist Martin '9 Ibid., p. 15. 20 Washington Post, Aug. 16, 1992. Mawyer, "I would assume the platform was written 21 Ibid., Aug. 18, 1992.

14 LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 Pat Robertson's Dew World Order and Your Place in It

BY JOSEPH L. CONN t's no mean feat to link George Bush and the television evangelist has endorsed for reelec- Jimmy Carter, John Lennon and Nikolai tion. Bush, you see, is a member of the villainous Lenin, the Illuminati and Shirley MacLaine, Trilateral Commission as well as the Council on the Masons and the Marxists, the Foreign Affairs, and he has surrounded himself Rockefellers and the Rothschilds, the Trilat- with men of that ilk. Bush also trumpets the New eral/ Commission and the Council on Foreign Af- World Order concept. fairs all together as actors in a Satan-spawned cabal Still, the television evangelist is inclined to give to bring about a socialist one-world government— Bush the benefit of the doubt. The president, he and ultimately the reign of the antiChrist. But then says, may be "unknowingly and unwittingly carry- Pat Robertson is no ordinary author. ing out the mission and mouthing the phrases of a In his latest book, The New World Order: It Will tightly knit cabal whose goal is nothing less than a Change the Way You Live (Word Publishing, 319 new order for the human race under the domina- pp., $17.99), the Virginia Beach pundit and prog- tion of Lucifer and his followers." In other words, nosticator presents a paranoid theory of interna- Bush isn't evil, just dumb. tional events that weaves together shopworn secu- In contrast, Ronald Reagan, once the darling of lar conspiracies with Robertson's personal reading the Religious Right, gets the silent treatment. The of Bible prophecy. The result: a horrific end-times book's index lists only three references to the scenario in which 2 billion people are killed in a final former president, a man Robertson once hailed as battle between good and evil. a "born-again Christian who really loves God." Robertson believes that leaders of world finance Perhaps Reagan's fall from Robertson's grace and world Communism (are they still around?) springs from his recently revealed devotion to as- have allied themselves with occult forces to usher in trology, a sure sign of deviltry in Robertson's view. the "New World Order," a one-world government With so many of our leaders part of the sinister under the United Nations and, perhaps later, a satanic scheme, how can Americans keep from satanic dictator. falling into the grip of the impending The plot, he says, has been thick- New World Order? Not surpris- Joseph L. Conn ening for centuries. Today it is rep- ingly, Pat offers himself as just about is editor oIChurch resented in America by "The Estab- the only man who can be trusted. and State magazine, lishment," Robertson's term for the Even though he says he is an "Anglo- the officia I organ wealthy families and foundations Saxon," the son of a U.S. senator and of Americ ans United that have allegedly controlled the an Ivy League graduate with "a dis- for Separ ation United States for the past 70 years. tinguished heritage that goes from of Church and State, Both Republicans and Democrats Colonial days back to the nobility of headquar tered in are involved. England," Sir Pat has abdicated his Silver Sp ring, For a Republican Party stalwart, rightful place in The Establishment Maryland Robertson comes down awfully to fight for folks, fundamentalism, hard on George Bush, a man whom and free enterprise.

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 15 Robertson waxes nostalgic for colonial America, where

everyone shared similar religious beliefs and civil laws reflected the will of the religious majority. Those

Puritan theocracies constituted a "Christian order," he

contends, that gave the clergy proper respect.

Pat's world order would look something like this: • Restrictions on religious liberty. Although Robertson touts religious liberty in concept, he seems to want it only for himself. The second commandment, he notes, prohibits "false religious worship." He bitterly attacks Supreme Court deci- sions upholding the religious neutrality of the pub- 10 • lic schools as "one of the great tragedies of history." • * • IP .. a lip" He criticizes the decline of mandatory Sunday rest Illp*,• • laws, charging that they were struck down as a result of church-state separation. (In fact, the Supreme Court upheld Sunday-closing laws in 1961.) It is an "outright insult to God and His plan," says Robert- son, that American laws must have a nonreligious purpose to pass constitutional muster. • Religious tests for public office. Robertson thinks only those with the right religion should rule. Christians and Jews, he says, are "better qualified to govern America" than Hindus, Muslims, atheists, or those with other incorrect religious beliefs. (Robertson falsely asserts that Thomas Jefferson, too, believed atheists should be barred from public office.) who interpreted the meaning of Scripture to them, • Restrictions on press freedom. Although the the pastor, was given a higher place than the gover- First Amendment has protected Robertson's right nor of the colony." Sounds like heaven to Pat! to peddle his sectarian wares, he isn't happywith the "There will never be world peace until God's freedom it gives others. "After 30 years of being the house and God's people are given their rightful recipient of libel and scorn at the hands of the print place of leadership at the top of the world," he media," he grouses, "I have become a bit more concludes. "Although I agree that it is unwise for hardened to their tactics. But I often wonder who the organized church as an institution to get itself gave these people the right to destroy, humiliate, entwined with government as an institution, there and damage the reputation of another human be- is absolutely no way that government can operate ing living at peace with them? . . . In God's world successfully unless led by godly men and women order, libel and slander are not permitted." operating under the laws of the God of Jacob." Robertson waxes nostalgic for colonial America, Are there any examples of godly government where everyone shared similar religious beliefs and that Americans could look to? Would you believe civil laws reflected the will of the religious majority. Guatemala? Robertson's friend and fellow Pente- Voting was limited to property owners, he says, to costal Jorge Serrano governs there. Serrano is a ensure that only people who had a "stake in society" crony of Efrain Rios Montt, another Pentecostal were allowed to determine its laws. whom Robertson cites as giving "enlightened lead- Those Puritan theocracies constituted a "Chris- ership." Funny, others remember Rios Montt as a tian order," Robertson contends, that gave the cruel dictator who seized power in a 1982 military clergy proper respect. "In fact," he notes, "the man coup. He outlawed political parties, set up "special

16 LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 own Willie Horton scenario, Robertson writes of white settlers killed in the Congo in the 1960s by "Black African soldiers serving in a United Nations contingent." "If it happened there," he mutters ominously, "it can happen here." Later in the book, Robertson opposes "anyone running the foreign affairs of America who speaks with a foreign accent." In comments aimed at former officials Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, Robertson asks, "How can anyone who spent most of his life in Germany or Poland fully understand the family life, the shared values, the history of free enterprise and free speech, and the intense patriotism of people born in Columbus, Ohio?" Robertson advocates printing hundreds of thousands of leaflets giving candidates' stands on key political issues and distributing the material to every church member and registered voter in America. He boasts that a similar leafletting drive by his Christian Coalition won the 1990 North Carolina election for Senator Jesse Helms, a key Religious Right ally in the U.S. Senate. "My goal," Robertson says, "is to see a pro- freedom majority in the United States Senate in 1992, and a reversal of leadership in the House of Representatives by 1996." One important aim is the repeal of the Federal Reserve System, a move he says will break the financial power of The Establish- ment. Robertson's book is a treasure trove of bizarre speculation and outlandish, undocumented charges. Where else can you learn that Abraham Lincoln's assassination was probably engineered by European bankers? Where else can you learn that tribunals" to execute "delinquents," and killed The Establishment has chosen Senator Jay Rocke- thousands of Guatemalan civilians in an attempt to feller to become president in 1996? (Has anyone crush a leftist insurgency. told Jay? Should we cancel the election and save Robertson assures his readers that he would some money?) never force anyone to follow his religious prescrip- All this could be dismissed as harmless kookery tions, but his detailed "Christian agenda" leaves if it came from one of the many obscure conspiracy one less than convicted. mills, but Pat's tome has made the New York Times One-world government—and the rule of the best-seller list. His publisher says 344,000 copies of antiChrist—can be delayed, Robertson suggests, the hardback are now in print, and the paperback only if the "Christian United States" holds the edition, released in March, has already sold 134,000 forces of darkness at bay. To keep us in the battle, copies. he is recruiting a computer-organized grass-roots When you combine this outreach with his na- army. tionwide television audience, Robertson's bully Robertson realizes that most Americans don't pulpit preaches his alarming theocratic message to share his sectarian convictions, but they will still a large congregation of Americans. In addition, his want to join the crusade, he says, when they realize political, legal, and educational divisions—as well that a world government wants to drain away their as his personal wealth—are all growing steadily money. into an unholy empire. Americans who believe in To appeal to the masses, Robertson is also will- religious liberty, church-state separation, and ing to play on racism, xenophobia, hyperpatriot- other constitutional freedoms have cause for con- ism, and other "populist" themes. Creating his cern.

ILLUSTRATION BY JEFF DEVER

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 17 MI

-

Church and State: Nes of Coexistence Each has a divine mandate for a unique mission.

he American Founding Fathers frustrated BY CARL F. H. HENRY identify the true and living God and to proclaim the efforts either by the state or the church to good news. As a new and distinct society of regen- control all aspects of society. By the First erate believers—transnational, transracial, Amendment they disallowed official reli- transcultural—the church functions among man- gion, but at the same time they implicitly kind to exemplify and demonstrate moral and respected the citizens' voluntary loyalty to spiritual obedience to the crucified and risen Lord. Tan authority higher than the state. The church's unique mission is to announce to Instead of imposing political boundaries on the every nation the universal human need of redemp- entire range of social conduct, or of merging state tion and the glad tidings of God's ready forgiveness and church, they placed the religious sphere out- of penitent sinners on the ground of the side state governance and placed civil government Redeemer's substitutionary life and death, and His outside church control. offer of new spiritual life through the Holy Spirit. In view of Jesus' differentiation of the secular Presented at a Both by word and deed, the church is to publish to and the spiritual ("Render to Caesar the things that conference on The the world the standards by which the coming King are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" Christian As Citizen, will judge all rulers and nations, and even now [Mark 12:17] ), Christianity also has discriminated sponsored by the judges them. The church is to mirror the righteous- between the religious and political spheres, yet Christianity Today ness and mercy of God in interpersonal relation- without fully disjoining them. Both are indispens- Institute, November ships and to pursue social justice in the world of able aspects of a faithful Christian calling, and each 1984. Reprinted with politico-economic affairs. renders service to the other. permission from The church's evangelization of society will rely Christianity Today on proclamation and persuasion, not on legislation The Mission of the Church in the World Institute, copyright and political coercion. That restrictive determina- While the state's primary concern is to preserve 1985 by Christianity tion of the American Founding Fathers was antici- justice and maintain order, the church's role is to Today, Inc. pated by the New Testament, which disallows the

ILLUSTRATION By SALLY VITSKV

18 LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 church from establishing a theocracy. religious persecution. By protecting the primacy of People of one or another religious confession, obedience to God rather than to individuals, and even people who work in government, will always the right of conscience, the Founding Fathers reflect to some degree the social consensus of their sought to safeguard the common good of all citi- particular constituency. Jimmy Carter, a con- zens. firmed Southern Baptist, drew a line between pri- The individual's freedom to accept or reject vate religion and public affairs, yet he functioned in religion is neither simply a political necessity in a the political arena differently than those predeces- complex democratic society nor simply a sociologi- sors who assented merely to civil religion. But cal necessity now that no single spiritual tradition Article VI of the Constitution states there must be dominates. Religious liberty is far more than a no religious test for holding office: "No religious cultural or political desideratum; it is a God-given test shall ever be required as a qualification to any virtue rooted in the character of true religion. By its office or public trust under the United States." A pluralistic very nature authentic religion demands religious Unlike the church, government must be neutral in freedom. Coerced spiritual decision is worthless its relationships with believers and unbelievers. democracy both to God and to man. In view of its emphasis on While the legislative expression of nonestab- the indispensability of personal decision, evangeli- lishment proceeded step by step, the so-called wall must cal Christianity should in fact be seen as the cham- of separation was rather serpentine in nature. This pion of voluntarism. "Choose you this day whom less-than-straightforward approach was necessary enable any ye will serve" (Joshua 24:15) is a mockery unless because the two main purposes of the First Amend- personal response involves voluntary commit- ment—prohibition of an established religion and minority to ment. It is an individual's awesome prerogative to guarantee of complete religious freedom—seemed turn religious freedom into freedom for God or at times to conflict. Were total separation fully present freedom from God. practiced, then citizens uprooted by military ser- A law-mandated religious society has no scrip- vice, for example, would lose their free exercise of its point of tural support. Any revival of the late-seventeenth- religion; the military chaplaincy was therefore con- century Massachusetts Bay Colony would be as sidered proper. Equally, if free exercise were rigidly view, much a Christian as a secular calamity. Most maintained, then prohibition of established reli- evangelicals would not only frown upon any such gion would be nullified, since those who would however proposal; they would actively resist it. Much as prefer an established religion need only gain politi- Christians must consider a Christian nation desir- cal power and claim that free exercise allows them unpopular, able, they disavow any Christian government that to do as they wish. by legal mandate would impose evangelical objec- and must tives in society. Were Christians to champion a Both Church and State Support modern theocracy, they would be at odds with the Religious Freedom accord New Testament doctrine of civil government, for Because the Bill of Rights declares that Congress Jesus Christ never instructed His disciples to give to shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of minority God what is Caesar's. Only at His return in the last religion, the unbeliever is protected from the ag- days will Christ rule in Caesar's stead; until then, gressive believer and the believer is protected from opinion a nations will function in a variety of forms, each the state. A pluralistic democracy must enable any awaiting its own final judgment, when every ruler minority to present its point of view, however decent will bow the knee to the King of kings. unpopular, and must accord minority opinion a Present-day obedience to Christ does not re- decent respect. respect. quire Christians to embody all Old Testament law If the prohibition of an established church has and all Jesus' teachings in statute law. On the seemed nececsary to preserve religious freedom, it contrary, obedience to the New Testament revela- is so only because the church unfortunately, and all tion requires that Christians not incorporate all too factually, has needlessly accumulated a reputa- biblical imperatives into civil legislation, for two tion for intolerance. No necessary connection reasons. First, some Old Testament law was in- exists, however, between nonestablishment and tended for the Hebrew theocracy only; second, religious freedom. An established religion might Christians are not to rely on legal implementation very well accommodate religious liberty (as does to fulfill divine imperatives that they themselves are the Church ofEngland), and religious liberty might to communicate to the nonbelieving world embrace an established religion. Separation of through preaching and persuasion. church and state does not of itself guarantee reli- On what basis, then, should Christians distin- gious liberty; indeed, the Soviet Union was evi- guish which aspects of scriptural morality they dence that absolute separation is a corollary of should advance by legislative means? Negatively,

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 19 misrepresent the Christian agenda as the subjuga- tion of society by a yoke of tradition. Evangelical Christianity as a whole has indeed Church and State at the Crossroads: repudiated state absolutism, which imposes upon No State Domination of the Church the masses whatever values suit the whim of politi- The United States was founded upon strong principles cal tyrants. So too, although in a narrower context, of the separation of church and state. Yet at both the the eighteenth-century American clergy preached Continental Congress in the 1770s and the Constitutional "liberty." Convention in the 1780s, leaders paused to ask God's Religious freedom shelters all other freedoms. blessing on their enterprise. What looks like a contradic- Under the license and aegis of God, it challenges all tion from a modern vantage point was no contradiction to arbitrary authorities who would impose false abso- the Founding Fathers. For them, the evil in church-state lutes on the human spirit. Jesus instructed Chris- relations was a despotic government attempting to shape tians not to render to Caesar what is God's. His the religion of a people. Yet the Founding Fathers did not apostles did more than simply approve submission want to be rid of God. For some, this "God" was merely a to civil government as good and necessary; they deistic form of energy that began the world; for others, he insisted, and boldly so, that when authority claims was no more than the celestial Law Giver; for still others, he conflict, we are to obey God rather than individuals was the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. However (Acts 5:29). Religious freedom resolutely stands much they differed on what religion was, none desired a guard against the sovereignty of the state or of the European pattern of state domination of the church. will of the majority or even of a vigorously asserted However much they wanted to get the state out of the minority that presumes to speak with absolutistic business of the churches, none wanted to dismiss oral and pretensions. religious considerations from American public life. American evangelicals in our time have not rung the bell of freedom with arresting power. The time to do so is not only when freedom's champi- no moral imperatives should be governmentally ons are persecuted and imprisoned for its affir- imposed on the ground of sectarian religious re- mation; the time to do it is here and it is now. quirement. Positively, Christians should promote civilization's basic values and the public good. The Moral Foundation of Our Democracy Is it right or wrong, then, to espouse anti-abor- The Founding Fathers respected rather than tion legislation? Here the issue is two-pronged. rejected the enduring importance of God as the First, whether abortion is a proper concern of universal Sovereign over all human relationships, government, and legislation; and second, whether and an objective supernatural moral order. It is abortion is ever moral. clear from the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution affords protection of life for less formal pronouncements that they regarded all human beings. Although evangelicals tend to theologically grounded values as indispensable to a promote right-to-life on a biblical basis, support democracy, and that disdain for such moral prin- for the sanctity of human life is anchored also in the ciples imperils social stability. value system that undergirds Western society and The First Amendment was not motivated by that views the taking of human life as wicked. Not indifference toward religion, far less by a desire to only Holy Writ but also constitutional concerns promote secularism. Rather, what underlies the require the Christian to protest the cheap devalua- nonestablishment clause is a deep-seated concern tion of life inherent in the current proabortion for the integrity of both state and religion. The atmosphere. "establishment of religion" in the Bill of Rights What of Sunday-closing laws? When these were referred to specific churches in eighteenth-century introduced 50 years ago, their legitimacy lay in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, protecting the labor force from a seven-day work- and those existing prior to that time in Virginia and week. They were not intended to enforce Sunday other southern colonies. These churches drew no churchgoing. If dosing laws are adopted, their line between religious and political concerns. For legitimacy still must lie in their civil purpose: the example, Connecticut once fined those who failed advancement of the public good. No basis exists for to attend church on Sunday, and New Hampshire's the imposition of such laws to promote religion. first constitution permitted towns—not The cardinal concern for evangelicals should be churches—to elect Congregational ministers. It human liberty and its ramifications. Failure to also provided tax-paid salaries for other Protestant exhibit freedom as a foremost religious, political, ministers. and social concern makes it easy for critics to The Colonists were predominantly a Christian

2D LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 people. The Constitution in no way excludes the ism, can survive without any religious or quasi- possibility or even the desirability of a Christian religious foundations on the basis of the proper nation as the voluntary commitment of the popu- political and economic controls and a philosophy lace. Nor does it commend an interfaith or ofhumanism. History, however, including current multifaith nation. For the most part, political history, testifies otherwise: people will not give their leaders and citizenry alike shared, at least conceptu- allegiance to a political and economic system, and ally, a commitment to supernatural theism and to even less to a philosophy, unless it represents for unalienable rights that the Creator confers and them a higher, sacred truth." sustains, and that just governments preserve and Third, an essentially naturalistic outlook domi- protect. Some, like Jefferson, were deists; many nates public education and the media. Public more were biblical theists. Nothing in the dual schools, when isolated from spiritual concerns, commitments to nonestablishment and to reli- have been unable to make a compelling case for gious liberty was intended to impede or annul ethics and have set human life into a context not of Christian engagement in the mandate to preach the transcendent principles but evolutionary natural- gospel worldwide. So long as the church and not ism. The statistics of such teenage tragedy as ado- the state was the avenue for religious proclamation The Moral lescent pregnancy, abortion, vandalism, and even and extension, and the state was not an instrument suicide are widely linked to this loss of a divine of the church, believers were free to challenge every Majority and moral anchor. last inhabitant ofthe land to personal faith in Christ In some circles an effort is under way that will as Redeemer, and to live Christianly in view of similar reinstate values but, apart from religion, leave un- Christ's divine lordship over human affairs. resolved the source and sanction of ethical impera- But today the nonestablishment clause is often movements tives. Simply to diagnose this national dilemma skewed to imply that any public acknowledgment does not guarantee a response that is either biblical of God and the relevance of ethical absolutes to have emerged or constitutional or effective. public affairs is improper. Ours is becoming one of The Moral Majority and similar movements several societies in the history of the Western world to press for have emerged to press for a recovery of moral that expects social stability and national survival on absolutes that would permeate American society. the premise that God and His transcendent com- a recovery of They have challenged legal accommodation of mandments are irrelevant to national well-being. trendy deviant lifestyles and have called for new Underlying this changed public mind-set are moral respect for biblical imperatives. Political pressure several philosophical developments that reflect a groups were organized to defeat advocates of abor- revolution no less significant than that of 1776. absolutes tion on demand and to promote pro-life candi- One such development is the vaunting of toler- dates. In its beginnings spokespersons for the ance as the ultimate virtue. The term tolerance has that would Moral Majority gave the impression that their goal been overextended to imply an intolerance ofabso - was to establish or to restore a Christian America lutes, to the point ofbecoming itself a false absolute. permeate through political change. The test of a genuinely democratic nation, it is said, Reaction was sharp and swift. It came from both lies in whether and how it accommodates its diver- American Left and Right, fearful that a contemporary theoc- sity. To be sure, how a nation deals with minorities racy was being championed to displace pluralistic is a measure of its sensitivity to justice. But uncriti- society. democracy. The Moral Majority then clarified its cal acceptance of devious moral behavior in the stance. The movement, explained Jerry Falwell, is name of tolerance is quite another matter and has not theologically based, but is a transreligious alli- costly consequences. ance of ethically concerned Americans. Second, modern thought has disengaged ethics Discerning Christians, however, saw in all this from religion and law from ethics. Secular human- disarray the danger that the call for a recovery of ists argue that religion is merely an integrating moral absolutes in the life of the nation would be perspective that enhances an individual's sense of lost because of the incipient disunity of its champi- dignity and worth. By denying that ethics has any ons and because of their failure to shape a compre- foundation in a Creator-God, they also sever law hensive philosophy. The Religious Right's sum- from a fixed morality. Citizens are asked to support mons to fixed values in national life required what is law only in view of what is legal, and not greater intellectual depth and breadth, and greater primarily in view of what is good or divinely ap- cross-cultural support. proved. Harvard Law School professor Harold Berman underscores the point: "It is supposed by Why the Church Supports the State some—especially intellectuals—that fundamental Civil government exists by the providential will legal principles, whether of democracy or social- of God. The church needs the state's preservation

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 21 and promotion of justice in the world because the should personally murder Hitler for his crimes power of the sword is able to restrain injustice and against humanity. In the American context of disorder where and when individuals spurn grace church-state separation, the need continues in ev- and goodwill. But Christians also require civil ery successive generation for government alertness government because the professing family of faith, as to how the church seeks to attain its objectives for all the transforming power of redemption, is and what objectives it seeks in the political arena. not yet perfect and remains vulnerable to self- By the same token, the church must be alert to assertion and self-interest. Only a romantic view of civil government's intentions, especially regarding the church militant, one that exaggerates the righ- the state's assessment of the church. By declaring teousness of the redeemed, will look upon civil that Jesus "suffered under Pontius Pilate" the government as totally in the service of Satan. Apostles' Creed succinctly summarized for all fu- Religious belief does not exempt churches and ture generations the injustice done to the Nazarene other religious movements from any and all re- From a by a Roman procurator. sponsibility to the state. Church bodies are obliged In early Roman times Christians were wrongly to observe civil and criminal laws. And ifprotesting reading of its suspected of engaging in nocturnal conspiracy be- those laws as less than just, such bodies should do so cause they observed Communion with their invis- by exploring all possibilities for change through own past, the ible Lord, and ofbeing atheists because they refused legal means and not by instigating unlawful mass to worship the of the state. They were officially response, particularly in a day of prevalent disre- regenerate blamed for every state calamity, and thousands spect for law. died as martyrs. Today in some countries Chris- It is onlyproper that the state, through its courts, church knows tians are considered politically dangerous and sub- investigate the sinceritywith which religious move- versive because they seek to accomplish through ments hold and apply their beliefs; Muslims who that neither Jesus Christ what the state vainly seeks to achieve on murder or maim adherents who convert to Chris- Marxist premises—namely a just and altruistic so- tianity or defect to atheism, the approval of mass a change of ciety. murder (as in Jonestown), promotion of violence What evangelical Christians undermine is not or terrorism to force swift social change—all invite political civil government, but false gods and a spurious or legal judgment. When Jonestown became a center imprecise vision of justice. The church clearly for Marxist activity, it became a proper subject for leadership nor differentiates between patriotism and nationalism. government investigation. Religious leaders are While not uncritical of "the system," it cautions expected to complywith criminal laws and to avoid adoption of against unwarranted alienation. politicizing tax-exempt ministries or commercial- Because Christians seek an ideal society by av- izing untaxed properties for lucrative purposes. legislation can enues other than those pursued by secularists who Christian agencies must respect the unique role rely on force and coercion, Christians may appear of the state in public life. Government is continu- assure to be ideologically and behaviorally radical. Except ally bombarded by pronouncements of church- fora misguided minority ofactivists, however, they men who claim to speak authoritatively on all transformation are not. They do, though, confront the state with manner of secular issues. Ecclesiastics who cannot ideas and practices that challenge society. agree on basic principles of church dogma sud- of a people's From a reading of its own past, the regenerate denly become specialists in deriving from whatever church knows that neither a change of political doctrines they choose to retain a list of legislative moral leadership nor adoption of legislation can assure options. Meanwhile the views of highly informed transformation of a people's moral character. and experienced political leaders, who are also character. Christians know that the best way to thrust the church affiliated, are overlooked and even dispar- impact of Christ's lordship into the political order aged by self-declared omnicompetent clergy who is to live out faith's vitalities in and through the speak outside their own fields of learning. established structures, and to transcend their beset- The church is indeed free to offer direction to ting injustices by personal example. But Christian society. That need not mean, however, that the responsibility on earth does not end there. As church is to be the prime coordinator and deter- citizens of two worlds, Christians know that the miner of all social behavior and relationships. In penalty for withholding exemplary guidance and our day a form of relies upon the sword to involvement for the social common good is to extend Quranic influence much as the medieval surrender the political arena by default to non- church in some eras extended Christian influence Christian alternatives. Far worse, lack of public through the warring expansion of the church-state. engagement in the world is tantamount to defec- A generation ago a leading German Protestant tion from the Redeemer's army of occupation and thought that he, as a Christian motivated by love, liberation.

22 LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992

The phrase was Susan B. Anthony's. The right to vote wasn 't, and that fact, said the suf fragette, made it a ~downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty.

BY GODFREY D. LEHMAN

hortly before the Republicans convened prepared to fight?" "Yes, Mr. Greeley. Just as you in Philadelphia in 1872 to renominate fought in the late war—at the point of a goose Ulysses S. Grant for president, Susan quill." The answer hardly endeared her cause to Brownell Anthony visited him at the him, and Greeley had not changed his position in White House. She told the president that the intervening years; he had stated publicly that her National Woman Suffrage Association "the best women I know do not want to vote." (NWSA) wanted him to make votes for women a She knew better than to expect much progress, plank in his platform. Grant replied that he had however, when she arrived in Philadelphia for the "already done more for women than any other Republican convention on Friday, June 7. The president." He recognized the "right of women to NWSA delegation was met, as often before, with be postmasters," he said, and had named 5,000 to gallant words and the excuse of "party expediency." Anthony was told that the chief objective of the convention was to ensure full citizenship and vot- ing rights for the "colored male citizen." Distrac- tions would have to be postponed. Anthony had fought against slavery for years, but she rejected an application of the Thirteenth Amendment that left black and white women alike enslaved to male relatives. In the end, Anthony's delegation had to accept a campaign plank that soothingly cited Republican "obligations to the loyal women of America for GARg, their noble devotion to the cause of freedom" and the hope for "their admission to wider fields of usefulness." Nevertheless, the plank ended with the statement "The honest demands of any class of citizens for equal rights should be treated with of respectful consideration." No national party had Sig said even that much before. Having decided to throw her organization's the post, but he would make no promises about the support to the Republicans, Anthony started a party platform. speaking tour on September 20. She was convinced Anthony had never been comfortable playing "without a particle of doubt" that, in fact, the the role of supplicant. The NWSA's mottoes Constitution already guaranteed women's right to avoided any pleading tone: "Men—their rights and vote. The new Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend- nothing more. Women—their rights and nothing ments assured it. The Fourteenth, just four years less"; "Principle, Not policy. Justice, Not favors." old, decreed that "all persons born or naturalized in Godfrey D. Lehman. a But the suffragists believed that Republicans were the United States ... are citizens" and "no State shall resident of San Francisco. their best bet in the upcoming election; Henry make or enforce any law which shall abridge the is an attorney whose Wilson, who was to be Grant's vice presidential privileges or immunities of citizens." The Fif- passion is the jury running mate, was less equivocal about women's teenth, added in 1870, prohibited any state from system. He is the author suffrage than Grant, while Horace Greeley, the withholding the right to vote from any citizen "on of several books on the probable Democratic candidate, was outspokenly account of race, color, or previous condition of subject. Reprinted with against it. servitude." The suffragists had lobbied to include author's permission from Anthony had asked for Greeley's support five the word "sex," but again, the excuse of "party American Heritage, years earlier. "The bullet and the ballot go together, expediency" had prevailed. Nonetheless there copyright 1985. madam," he had replied. "If you vote, are you could be no justifiable doubt because the Four-

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 23 "I prefer to be arrested like anybody else. three sisters, and appeared that very day before a startled board of registry in a barbershop in Anthony told the embarrassed deputy marshal Rochester's Eighth Ward. Two members of the three-man board, Beverly who appeared at her door. You may handcuf f Jones and Edwin F. Marsh, were Republicans; the third was a Democrat named William B. Hall. me as soon as I get my coat and hat." Anthony offered her credentials, and Jones, chief of the board, sought the advice of his superiors. Two U.S. supervisors of elections had been appointed to oversee things in the Eighth Ward, but one left the teenth also included the caveat that no state could barbershop as soon as the women entered. The deny "to any person . . . the equal protection of the other could see no way to get around placing the laws." Totally convinced of women's constitu- names in the register; he asked if Jones knew the tional right to vote, Anthony decided to present penalty for refusing to register an eligible voter. herself to the board of registry on the designated This convinced Jones and Marsh, but Hall re- date; on Election Day, she would cast her ballot. sisted. The 2-1 majority prevailed, however, and all Two territories had already recognized the women were registered. When the Rochester women's voting rights: Wyoming in 1869 and Utah newspapers published the story the next day, some in 1870. Nor would Anthony be the first woman to 35 other women came to register in other wards. attempt to vote in one of the states. Marina M. Their action was denounced by the Rochester Ricker of Dover, New Hampshire, had been re- Union and Advertiser, which demanded the pros- buffed in 1870, but in April of 1871 Nanette B. ecution of any election official who accepted their Gardner voted in Detroit and got away with it. That ballots. The paper published the essential features same month 72 women had tried to register in the of an enforcement act of the Fourteenth Amend- District of Columbia but had been denied. When ment: "Any person . . . who shall vote without they had appealed to the supreme court of the having a legal right to vote; or do any unlawful act district, the judges proclaimed that the granting of to secure . . . an opportunity to vote for himself or citizenship did not necessarily confer the right to any other person . . . shall be deemed guilty of a vote, thereby ignoring several law dictionaries that crime," punishable by a fine of $500 and/or impris- defined citizenship as including the "right to vote onment up to three years. This warning was so . for public officers." The United States Supreme intimidating that on Election Day, November 5, no Court saw no reason to overturn the lower court's official in any ward except the Eighth permitted decision. women to vote. Several other voting attempts had been frus- The 16 registered women of the Eighth Ward trated at one level or another, but Mrs. L. D. Mans- arrived as the polls opened at 7:00 a.m.: they found field and "three other ladies" had registered and the same three men there, now serving as inspectors succeeded in voting in Nyack, New York, in 1871. of election. The women asked for ballots, they "No evil results followed," the New York Times received them, and they all voted. Most of the concluded in an editorial. ballots were returned to Jones or Marsh, but even Hall accepted some. The women went home, the nthony sought substantiation for ballots were counted, and the story was telegraphed her decision to vote from lawyers in across the nation. her hometown of Rochester, New On Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November York, but none was interested until 28, an imposingly tall, impeccably attired, and very she called upon Henry R. Selden, a fidgety gentleman presented himself at the An- formerA judge ofthe New York Court ofAppeals and thony family's front door. After a few nervous of the state supreme court. Like the others, Selden comments about the weather he began hesitantly, had never considered the issue, but he agreed to "Miss Anthony," but could not continue. review it. After doing so, he told Anthony the "Won't you sit down?" she said pleasantly. amendments did guarantee voting rights to "No, thank you. You see, Miss Anthony ... ," he women. He promised to support her claim. stammered; "I am here on a most uncomfortable Anthony was pleased, but she had already de- errand." He hesitated again. "The fact is, Miss cided to proceed whatever his opinion. On Friday, Anthony . . . I have come to arrest you." November 1, when the Rochester Democrat and The unhappy deputy marshal, E. J. Keeney, Chronicle urged all citizens to "register now," An- seemed about to collapse, but he pressed on. "Ifyou thony gathered 15 other women, induding her will oblige me by coming as soon as possible to the

ILLUSTRATION BY SKIP LE IPKE

24 LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 testing the question?" "Yes, sir; I had been resolved for three years to vote at the first election when I had been at home for 30 days before." The hearing had aroused so much interest that crowds of women came to witness it, and the proceedings were moved to a larger, cleaner room. One local newspaper described "these law- breakers" as "elderly, matronly-look- ing women, with thoughtful faces, just the sort one would like to see in charge of one's sick room, considerate, pa- tient, kindly." Actually Anthony was 52, and many of the others were younger; all but three were married. They pleaded not guilty and, placed under bail of $500 each, were ordered to appear before a grand jury in Albany on January 22. On that date the 20 jurors swore that "the said Susan B. Anthony, being then and there a per- son of the female sex [which] she well knew ... on the fifth day of November, 1872 . . . did knowingly and unlawfully A board of registry district attorney's office, no escort will be neces- vote," which she "well knew" was unlawful. The housed in a sary." indictment was signed by Richard Crowley, United Rochester, New "Is this the usual manner of serving a warrant?" States attorney. York, barbershop Keeney blushed and drew the warrant from his The three inspectors were indicted for register- proved to be a pocket. It said she had violated an act of Congress. ing and later accepting the ballots, although Wil- fateful site in Susan The possibility of arrest had never occurred to liam B. Hall, a Democrat, protested vainly he had B. Anthony's Anthony, but she kept her composure. "I prefer to been against it and should be excluded. Anthony battle for women's be arrested like anybody else. You may handcuff asked Judge Selden to represent her, and he did right to vote. me as soon as I get my coat and hat." Keeney without fee; he was joined by the attorney John Van refused. Voorhis. A vindictive district judge, Nathan Hall, The marshal then served warrants on her three set Anthony's bail at an abnormally high $1,000. sisters; in other parts of the city, deputies were (At that time a family could live a whole year on calling on the 12 other women. The 16 were $1,000.) She refused to pay, electing jail, but Selden, brought into a bleak, dirty courtroom where only a unwilling to see his client go to prison, put up the few years before runaway slaves had been held money. awaiting trial. No one acknowledged their pres- After she left the courtroom, Van Voorhis in- ence until early evening, when the commissioner of formed her that because she did not go to jail she elections arrived to inform them that the district had just lost the right to appeal to the U.S. Supreme attorney had failed to appear; they could go home Court. Anthony rushed back into the courtroom and return the following morning. and asked Selden to withdraw the bail, but it was too On Friday Anthony was subjected to an inqui- late. The bail had been recorded. A jury trial was set sition: for June 17, 1873, in Rochester. The government "Would you have made the same efforts to vote decided to prosecute her alone as representative of that you did, if you had not consulted with Judge the 16. And all three inspectors were ordered to trial Selden?" on June 18, over William B. Hall's protests. "Yes, sir," she replied. Anthony now took her case directly to the "Were you influenced in the matter by his ad- people of Rochester's Monroe County—her pro- vice at all?" spective jurors. In those pretelephone days the "No, sir." district post offices were important gathering "You went into this matter for the purpose of places where newspapers from other cities arrived

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 25 first, where people came to gossip and exchange Anthony" 16 times. The two women appeared news, and where speakers could almost always find together on the evening of June 16. The next day a crowd eager to hear their messages. Between her Susan B. Anthony went on trial. indictment and late May, Anthony appeared at all At 2:30 p.m. a jury was impaneled "without 29 post offices in the county, sending posters on difficulty," the New York Times reported. The ahead to advertise each lecture. She told her audi- government used one peremptory challenge, and ences that "I not only committed no crime, but the defense three. Nothing else is recorded about instead simply exercised my citizen's right, guaran- this jury, although an enormous issue was to rest teed to me and all United States citizens by the with them. No record survives of how the basic National Constitution, beyond the power of any venire was chosen. But since New York jurors had state to deny." Those "grand documents"—the to be "male inhabitants" between 21 and 60 who Declaration of Independence and the United States owned personal property assessed at $250 or Constitution—do not delegate to government the greater or a "freehold estate" belonging to them or "power to create or confer rights" but "propose to their wives valued at $150, it is safe to assume that protect the people in the exercise oftheir God-given Anthony's jury was composed of fairly wealthy, rights." The constitutions of every one of the then- well-established men. existing 36 states are "all alike" in that "not one of The courtroom in Canandaigua was crowded, them pretends to bestow rights." There is "no with former president Millard Fillmore among the shadow of governmental authority over rights, nor spectators. Selden asked Judge Nathan Hall to sit exclusion of any class from their full and equal together with the presiding judge, despite his preju- enjoyment." She drew from the Declaration the dice, because he believed it would be impossible to phrase that rights are "unalienable" and that gov- make an appeal on reversible error to a higher court ernments were formed only "to secure these with only a single judge. Hall refused. rights," not to grant what was inherent. It was evident almost from the first "Hear ye, hear ye" of the bailiff that Judge Ward Hunt, a t was contrary to true constitutionalism, she Supreme Court justice and former mayor of Utica, asserted, that one half of the people should had allied himself with Crowley. Early in the trial be subjugated to the other half through a Hunt refused to permit Anthony to be a witness in "hateful oligarchy of sex." Women were her own behalf, ruling she was "incompetent." But compelled to pay taxes without representa- he did allow assistant U.S. district attorney John E. Ition; were brought to trial "without a jury of their Pound to offer hearsay evidence concerning testi- peers," imprisoned, and even hanged; were robbed mony she had given at pretrial hearings. Judge in marriage of the custody of their own wages, their Selden protested: this would be "the version which own children, their own persons. "We, the people" the United States office took of her evidence," and did not mean "We, the white male citizens" or even if Anthony was given no chance to reply, it should "We, the male citizens" but "We, the whole be excluded. At this objection Hunt delivered a people," and it "is a downright mockery to talk to two-word directive to Pound: "Go on. women of their enjoyment of the blessings of lib- erty" while they are denied the ballot. ut Hunt did permit Selden to offer Anthony covered the county so well that, by himself as a witness. Selden told the May, Prosecutor Crowley was worried that no jury of his background of some dozen Monroe County jury would convict her. He carried years as a judge, and how, after schol- this complaint to Judge Nathan Hall in Albany and arly research, he had informed An- requested moving the trial to the more remote town Bthony that she had a constitutionally guaranteed ofCanandaigua. Hall readily complied, and only 22 right to vote. He still believed it beyond any doubt, days before the trial date he imposed additional he said, and Anthony's acting on it indicated she costs and burdens on the defendants by requiring was only following in good faith a constitutional the 28-mile journey from Rochester. mandate; therefore, she could not possibly have Nothing seems to have been recorded about "knowingly" voted "unlawfully." whether Anthony or the inspectors remained in Crowley, for the prosecution, addressed the jury Canandaigua throughout the period or com- at some length. There was no law permitting muted. In any case, Anthony made 21 appearances women to vote, Crowley said, and not knowing this before the trial speaking on the subject "Is It a Crime was no excuse. A "good faith" defense was "abhor- for a United States Citizen to Vote?" Her friend rent," even though Crowley himselfhad written the Matilda Joslyn Gage traveled with her and gave her word "knowingly" into the indictment. speech "The United States on Trial, Not Susan B. Selden knew he faced heavy odds. His closing

26 LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 law [and] under the Fourteenth Amendment . . . Judge Hunts apparent compassion in not Miss Anthony was not protected in a right to vote. imprisoning Susan Anthony was misleading. He And I have decided also that her belief and the advice which she took does not protect her in the act thereby avoided criticism for reversible errors she committed. If I am right in this, the result must be a verdict on your part of 'guilty,' and therefore I and blocLed her chance for appeal. direct that you find a verdict of 'guilty.'" The people in the courtroom gasped. Selden jumped to his feet. "That is a direction no court has the power to make in a criminal case," he said argument consumed nearly three hours. He put incredulously. three propositions to the jury: Ignoring him, Hunt turned to the clerk. "Take 1.Was the defendant legally entitled to vote at the verdict, Mr. Clerk." the election in question? The clerk addressed the jury: "Hearken to your 2. If she were not entitled to vote, but believed verdict as the court has recorded it. You say you that she was, and voted in good faith in that belief, find the defendant guilty of the offense whereof she did such voting constitute a crime under the statute stands indicted, and so say you all?" before referred to? Not a juror responded. 3. Did the defendant vote in good faith and Selden demanded the jury be polled, but Hunt belief? shut him off, saying, "No, gentlemen of the jury, Selden argued that all just government rests you are discharged," and he adjourned the court. upon the principles that "every citizen has a right to The finale was acted out so quickly that it seemed take part upon equal terms with every other citizen" rehearsed. and that inherent in citizenship is the right to vote. The 12 jurors sat stunned and confused in the He quoted from the dictionaries that the court of box. During the entire proceedings they had ut- the District of Columbia had shunned the previous tered not a word, but now, quizzed by the defense year. and the press, they voiced frustration and outrage. Since women were citizens, having been born or Many complained this was not their verdict at all; naturalized within the meaning of the Fourteenth they had not responded to the clerk simply because Amendment, it followed they had the right to vote. they didn't know they could. It was clear that the Otherwise, they would be held in "absolute political sentiment of the panel was to acquit. bondage"—in short, "slavery." One of the chief Hunt's arbitrary action altered the entire char- arguments in the senatorial debates on the Four- acter of the trial. No longer was the issue women teenth Amendment four years earlier was that the suffrage alone; it was now the question of the amendment would "protect every citizen, black or fundamental right to trial by an impartial jury. white, male or female." Many newspapers across the country that would At the very worst, Selden continued, if he had not support the women's cause condemned Hunt. been mistaken and there were no right, Anthony They would have far preferred a decision they had acted in good faith, and so the charge that she disagreed with to a judicially forced verdict and the "knowingly" violated the Constitution must be dangers that implied. The Rochester Democrat and void. "It is incumbent on the prosecution to show Chronicle called it a "grand overreaching assump- affirmatively that she voted knowing she had no tion of authority" by a man who believed "he is right to vote. The essence of the offense is that it is scarcely lower than the angels so far as personal done with a knowledge that it is without right. power goes." "'Knowingly' was inserted," Judge Selden went The New York Sun attacked Hunt for violating on, "to furnish security against the inability of "one of the most important provisions of the Con- stupid or prejudiced judges or jurors to distinguish stitution. The right to trial by jury includes the right between willful wrong and innocent mistake. An to a free and impartial verdict." Otherwise the jury innocent mistake is not a crime. An innocent would be "12 wooden automatons, moved by a mistake, whether oflaw or fact, can never constitute string pulled by the hand of the judge." The Utica a crime." Judge Hunt tolerated all this because he Observer approved Hunt's interpretation of the had the last say. He read a "brief statement" he had Fourteenth Amendment but nonetheless con- written before the trial had started—before any demned his seizure of jury power, with which he evidence, before Selden had presented any defense, had "outraged the rights ofSusan B. Anthony." The any arguments, or points of law: "The question Legal News of Chicago charged Hunt with commit- before the jury is wholly a question or questions of ting a worse offense against the Constitution than

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 27 Anthony had by "voting illegally," for "he had they sit through the morning sessions so as to sworn to support the Constitution and she had witness his methods. not." The Canandaigua Times editorialized that When the defense attorney John Van Voorhis despite Anthony's "crime," there is "serious ques- called one of the supervisors of elections to testify to tion" of the propriety of a proceeding in which the the advice he had given the inspectors, Hunt ruled proper functions of the jury are dispensed with. "If the man "incompetent." He did permit Chief this may be done in one instance, why may it not in Inspector Beverly Jones to testify to the presence of all?" the supervisors Silas J. Wagner, Republican, and Daniel J. Warner, Democrat. Jones went on to n the morning of the day after the report that while Anthony "was reading the Four- verdict, Selden appealed for a retrial, teenth Amendment and discussing different describing the "jealous care [ with points, Mr. Warner said . . ." which] the right of trial by jury has Prosecutor Crowley jumped in. "I submit to the been guarded by every English-speak- court that it is entirely immaterial what either (1)ing people from the days of King John, indeed from Warner or Wagner said." the days of King Alfred." He cited a recent New Hunt sustained him, stating, "I don't see that York murder trial that had continued and ended that is competent in any view of the case." with a conviction even after a juror had become ill. Later Van Voorhis asked Jones to "state what The court of appeals had returned the case for occurred." Again Jones began: "Mr. Warner said retrial, as "even by a showing of consent" by the ," and again Crowley objected. defendant, it was not a proper jury. There could Hunt repeated, "I don't think that is competent never be fewer than 12 people on a true constitu- what Warner said." tional jury. "The district attorney has gone into what oc- Hunt now asked if "the prisoner has anything to curred at that time. I ask to be permitted to show all say why sentence shall not be pronounced." She that occurred." replied she had many things to say and began by "I don't think that is competent." accusing him of "trampling underfoot every vital Van Voorhis persisted, demanding that the tes- principle of our government. I am degraded from timony include what the supervisor said. the status of citizen to that of a subject [as] all of my "I exclude it." sex are by Your Honor's verdict, doomed to politi- "Does that exclude all conversations that oc- cal subjugation under this so-called form of gov- curred there with any persons?" ernment." "It excludes anything of that character on the Hunt tried to stop her, but she persisted for some subject of advising them. Your case is just as good time. Finally Hunt said, "The court cannot allow without it as with it." the prisoner to go on ... the prisoner must sit down Jones was followed on the stand by his fellow . . . the court must insist." Anthony sat down after Republican election board member Edwin F. complaining she had "failed, even to get a trial by Marsh and other witnesses. One ofthem was Susan jury not of my peers. I ask not leniency at your B. Anthony herself, but with all Crowley's objec- hands, but rather the full rigors of the law." tions sustained by Hunt, she was effectively si- Hunt then fined her $100 and costs, but she lenced. defied him by announcing she would "never pay a In his summation Van Voorhis stressed the dollar of your unjust penalty" but would continue same theme that Selden had in Anthony's defense: to "rebel against your man-made, unjust, unconsti- malice was essential to crime. "Here is a total tutional forms of law that tax, fine, imprison, and absence of any pretense of malice. The defendants hang women while they deny them the right of acted honestly and according to their best judg- representation in the government." ment. They are not lawyers, nor skilled in law. They "Madam," Hunt responded, "the court will not had presented to them a legal question that, to say order you committed until the fine is paid." His the least, has !yowled some of the ablest legal minds apparent compassion was misleading. By not of the nation." pressing for payment or imprisoning her, he had When he concluded, Crowley rose, but Hunt avoided criticism for "reversible errors" from restrained him. "I don't think it is necessary for you higher courts. He had blocked her chance ofappeal. to spend time in argument, Mr. Crowley," he said, The judge was ready to commit more legal and then directed the jury: "Under no circum- offenses in the trial of the three inspectors that stance is a woman entitled to vote . . . and by the afternoon. It was a different jury—again not iden- adjudication which was made this morning upon tified in the record—and Hunt had arranged that this subject, there is no discretion. . . . In that view

28 LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 guilty: Judge the case with great interest, believed that President 1 direct you to find a verdict of Grant himself would "remit the fine if they are Hunt told the jury. Selden protested pressed too far." And indeed, they were pressed too far. On incredulously, "That is a direction no court has February 26, 1874, Hunt had the inspectors seized and imprisoned. Anthony rushed to the jail, urged the power to make in a criminal case. the men to hold out, and promised to work for their early release. She barely rested for five days, lectur- ing, going to the newspapers, preparing an appeal to Grant for a pardon. On March 2 she returned to of the case, is there anything to go to the jury?" jail with $62 for bail and succeeded in having them Fearing what would come, Van Voorhis released. jumped up to demand that the "whole case" go to That same day she received a telegram from the jury because trial by jury is inviolate and "the Butler saying that Grant had arranged for a pardon court had no power to take it from the jury." and remission of the fines. During their five days in "I am going to submit it to the jury," said Hunt. prison the inspectors received hundreds of callers "I claim the right to address the jury," said Van and were served bountiful meals by the women Voorhis. whose votes they had accepted. Upon their release "I don't think there is anything upon which you they were widely feted, and when they ran for can legitimately address the jury," Hunt said, and inspectors at the next election, they were returned then proceeded to address them himself, stating to office by a large majority—of male voters. that the women had no right to offer their votes, nor Anthony was never pardoned because she was the inspectors to receive them, but "instead of never jailed. Judge Selden did appeal to both houses doing as I did in the case this morning—directing of Congress for remission of her fine, basing his a verdict—I submit the case to you with these claim on the precedent of publisher Matthew Lyon, instructions, and you can decide it here or go out." who had been imprisoned and fined $1,000 after Van Voorhis tried again. "I ask Your Honor to being denied trial by jury under the Alien and instruct the jury that if they find these inspectors Sedition Acts of 1798. That fine was refunded with acted honestly, in accordance with their best judg- interest to his heirs. But the reviewing committees ments, they should be acquitted." in both the Senate and the House rejected the "I have expressly ruled to the contrary of that, Anthony appeal by narrow margins without con- gentlemen." Again Hunt charged the jury: "There sidering the chief basis for the claim. is sufficient evidence to sustain the indictment In 1897 Van Voorhis remembered the case this upon this point." Van Voorhis asked sarcastically, way: "There was a pre-arranged determination to "Then why should it go to the jury?" convict [ Susan B. Anthony]. A jury trial was dan- "As a matter of form." Again Hunt tried to force gerous, and so the Constitution was openly and the verdict right there in court. The jurors chose to deliberately violated. go out. They returned soon afterward hung, 11-1 "The Constitution makes the jury, in criminal for the prosecution. An annoyed Hunt threatened cases, the judges of the law and of the facts. The the lone juror: "You may retire again, gentlemen," mandate of the Constitution is that no matter how adding that, unless they agreed within a few min- clear or how strong the case may appear to the utes, he would adjourn the court until the morning. judge, it must be submitted to the jury," and if the He did not suggest any food or overnight accom- judge controls the jury, "he himself is guilty of a modations for the jurors. crime for which impeachment is the remedy." This had been precisely the policy of the Su- nder this pressure the hesitating juror preme Court since 1794. The first chief justice, capitulated, and the panel returned John Jay, had written that it is the obligation of the within 10 minutes with guilty verdicts jury to disregard an inequitable law and nullify it. for all three defendants. This jury was "The jury has a right to judge both law as well as fact also (pined, and again it was clear that in a controversy." The voting trial jurors were, of Uit was not the verdict of free choice. Van Voorhis's course, not informed of this. plea for retrial was dismissed. "If Miss Anthony had won her case on its mer- Hunt fined the inspectors $25 each, but like its" in the first place, Van Voorhis commented a Anthony they refused to pay, choosing instead to quarter century after her trial, "it would have revo- "allow process to be served." Senator Benjamin lutionized the suffrage of the country, and enfran- Butler of Massachusetts, who had been following chised every woman in the United States."

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 29 he time is October 5, 1573. The place, Antwerp, Belgium. Maeyken Wens, an Anabaptist, has been arrested and tortured. Her tongue screwed to her palate to prevent her witness, she is carted to the stake where her sentence is etched in flames. For what heinous violation of law did she die? She proclaimed the gospel as she understood it from her reading of the New Testament. And for that a tribunal of the Inquisition found her guilty of heresy, impiety, and disobedience to Mother Church. So it was when "God" directed affairs of government. So it was when no First Amendment separated church and state. So it was when doctrine was imposed by law. And so it was that they burned Maeyken Wens, Anabaptist and mother of nine.

BY PAUL D. SIMMONS

The time is 1672. The place, Bedford, England. At the Swan Hotel, a gentle Dr. Paul D. Simmons woman pleads her case before a judge. She wants her husband released from jail. His is professor of name is John Bunyan. His crime? He disobeyed the queen's order to cease preaching Christian Ethics and director of the Baptist doctrines and beliefs. He is now in his twelfth year without a trial. He serves Clarence Jordan 14 years for insisting on freedom of conscience in religious matters. Center for Christian A century later: the Commonwealth of Virginia. Two neighbors in Orange Ethical Concerns at Southern Baptist County, John Leland and James Madison, converse. Leland complains that Baptists Theological Seminary should not be forced to pay taxes for the salaries of Anglican priests and the mission in Louisville, of their established church. Kentucky. This article is adapted from his The two agree to a trade-off. Leland will not run against Madison for the speech delivered as Virginia House of Delegates; Madison will support a bill to disestablish religion in the "Howard Spell Virginia and work to assure religious liberty in the Constitutional Congress. In Lecture" at Missis- sippi College in January 1786, Virginia approves a declaration of religious liberty and the Congress Greenville, Missis- follows suit under the leadership of Madison and Jeffersonwho later is to speak sippi, November 6. eloquently of the "wall of separation between church and state." 1986. Maeyken Wens and other martyrs of untold num- and denominations in America. ber have not died in vain. From their tears, prayers, Two hundred years after that precarious agree- blood, and ashes arose a relationship between church ment new alliances threaten the guarantees ofthe First and state without parallel in other countries—a free Amendment. Puritan theocrats and an assortment of church in a free state. The Constitution of the new politicians who care little for religion but a great deal nation contains a new protection: "Congress shall about power are working fervently to erase the pro- make no law respecting an establishment of religion tections and privileges the wall of separation offers or prohibiting the free exercise thereof " both church and state. Gone is the fear of the executioner's gibbet for Fundamentalist (Protestant) Christians whose heresy; gone are the terrors of broken bones and roots are in Puritan New England are exploiting their tortured bodies for religious dissent; gone are taxes new-found power in Washington to remake the "free collected to support religion. church in a free state" into a theocracy. The Puritans Not all at once, to be sure. Connecticut had an we have always with us, trying to impose their moral established church until 1818. Massachusetts until and doctrinal opinions through civil law. 1833. But a new experiment in freedom was in Mortals cannot, after all, decide rightly before process. Government's role was to preserve and God. Only "the ordained" have authority from God. protect the First Amendment's Playing God, judging the laity, and separation of religious and secular ordering the magistrate to enact affairs. Courts were to assure strict Puritan theocrats laws serving righteousness and en- adherence to the distinction. Con- and politicians suring doctrinal fidelity—these gress was to be restricted in the laws who care little for were God's will for the Puritan that could be imposed on the citi- religion but a great preacher. Thus, in the name of God zenry—no dogma could be cam- the Puritans among us would sup- ouflaged as a civil law. deal about power press dissent, control thoughts and A glad and glorious era of reli- are working fervently expression, muzzle minds, ban gious liberty was conceived and to erase the books, and control dress and man- given birth in this new land. A protections and ners. Puritanism never dies; it sur- witness was raised to all the world privileges the wall vives to destroy the freedom of the that a firm wall of separation would of separation human spirit in the name of best protect the interests of both "Christian Orthodoxy." church and state. offers both church The time has come to say No to Freedom of religion meant that and state. further assaults on the wall of sepa- government could not coerce ration between church and state. people of faith to conform to regu- We do not need and we do not want lation in doctrine, morals, or church polity. Freedom kings or parliaments or presidents or Congress to tell for religion meant that religious leaders were free to us—and still less, our children—that we must pray. criticize policies and practices of government with- Let the political Puritans instead pray to overcome out fear of retribution. Freedom from religion meant personal prejudice and the arrogance of political that even atheists have rights of conscience in a free power. Not until they learn the stern lesson of and pluralistic society. The power of government voluntarism in religion will they begin to understand would be exercised to check the tyranny of religion religious freedom. against those who professed no religion at all. Let us call them to that understanding. Let them All groups consenting to the new Constitution hear its imperative in the witness of Isaac Backus, John agreed to this social contract of toleration, respect, Leland, John Bunyan—and Maeyken Wens. Let and acceptance of various religious traditions and them hear its pathos in the cries of those children who doctrinal persuasions. The contract's protection was suffered when their parents were imprisoned, tor- to be the First Amendment, an informed Supreme tured, or burned at the stake. Let them hear its Court and judicial system, a friendly and supportive relevance in our protests in the halls of Congress, at the Congress and executive branch of government, and White House, and at the ballot box. Let them hear us the self-interest if not the good will of the various sects say No!

LIBERTY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1992 31 ome in

America today would limit our

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rights for its own people can

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the world."

—Adlai E. Stevenson, speech, Jefferson-Jackson Day, February 14, 1953.