The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American

by Andrew L. Seidel

“No…shall…ever…any.” These words are a mandate. Joseph Story, Supreme Court Justice from 1812 to 1845, wrote the first definitive commentaries on the Constitution. He explained that the clause was “not introduced merely for the purpose of satisfying the scruples of many respectable persons, who feel an invincible repugnance to any religious test.” According to Story, “It had a higher objective: to cut off for ever every pretence of any alliance between church and state in the national government.”43 Divorcing religion from government offices was so important that the US Congress edited the word god out of its oath of office. The first bill Congress passed under the Constitution that President George Washington signed into law in June 1789 was “An Act to regulate the Time and Manner of administering certain Oaths.” As originally proposed, it had two clauses mentioning god: “in the presence of Almighty GOD” and “So help me God.”44 Neither made the final cut, and the oath remains godless until 1862 (see chapter 24). The federal experiment with state-church separation was so successful that the states began to follow along. Other than New York and Virginia, arguably the two most important, the original states had religious tests for public office, and none had godless constitutions.45 But they also all predated the federal Constitution. As they updated and amended those constitutions, the states began to follow the federal model of state-church separation, abolishing religious...