Dear editor:
Jonathan Lange is absolutely wrong in his assertion that governments should be encouraging religious worship.
Contrary to what he and other Christian nationalists believe, the First Amendment’s establishment and free exercise clauses mean exactly what they say.
James Madison wrote, “…practical distinction between Religion and Civil Government is essential to the purity of both.”
Thomas Jefferson wrote in his letter to the Danbury Baptist association, that he believed religion was “a matter which lies solely between Man & his God” and that the “powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions.”
And then he famously wrote in the same letter that the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment were “building a wall of eternal separation between Church & State.”
The framers of the Constitution, no matter their personal religious beliefs, believed as Jefferson did that religion and government should never be mixed, and they created a document reflecting that belief.
Christian nationalists believe the United States is a Christian nation, founded by Christians for Christians.
They believe that while the establishment clause prohibits the government from involving itself in religious affairs, it does not prohibit religion from involving itself in government affairs.
Christians don’t agree with an absolute separation between church and state and have been attempting to tear down Jefferson’s wall since the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791, and Lange’s pronouncement that governments should encourage religious worship is just another assault on that wall.
Lange is involved in the Wyoming Pastors Network, an organization which promotes a “Christian world view.”
One can only assume that in his call for governments to “encourage religious worship” he means the Christian religion and only the Christian religion.
Question: Just how would the government go about encouraging religious worship? Is Lange talking about a 1984 style department of religion?
Would Lange be happy with the government actively encouraging people to worship Allah or Vishnu or Buddha or Jupiter or Thor or maybe Satan? I think not.
Iran and Afghanistan are good examples of what it looks like when the dominant religion and the civil government are one and the same, and the government “encourages” worship.
Look, the free exercise clause of the First Amendment is all the encouragement to worship anyone in this country needs. If the churches need help from the government to encourage people to worship, the problem is not with the government, it is with the churches.
Sincerely,
Randy Vlach, Casper