In one of the many debates to be found raging in cyberspace about what the Founding Fathers “really intended” by way of separation of Church and State, I found this little chestnut:
“The clergy, by getting themselves established by law, and ingrafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man. They are still so in many countries and even in some of these United States. Even in 1783, we doubted the stability of our recent measures for reducing them to the footing of other useful callings. It now appears that our means were effectual.”
— Thomas Jefferson, 1800
I just love that “other useful callings” bit, really. And then, of course, there’s this concise summation:
“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”
— George Washington, Treaty of Tripoli
In case anyone was wondering.
Comments
3 responses to “Other Useful Callings”
Quick, someone carve that out of rock and smack W upside the head with it!
Not that I would disagree with Deists like Jefferson and Paine, or John Barlow (the author of the Treaty of Tripoli) for that matter, but I would suggest that you include the whole sentence not just up to the semi-colon;
As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries
This sentence is mostly a reassurance to the Muslims that the US was not going to persecute them for being Muslim. Not surprising for a bunch of Deists. And I hate to say it, but the “War on Terror” is about a number of REALLY stupid things, (mostly politics for the, (very short attention span) masses), but it isn’t a persecution of the Muslims in general.
Great. So that makes the point even better. I like it.