The United States is one of a kind

There is no place quite like the United States of America. The 2016 presidential election process is a profound reminder. Our founding fathers put together a different kind of a governmental system. Most everyone would agree that our system is not ideal and certainly inefficient. However, it may be the safest. The protections that are provided in our founding documents allow broad participation but puts checks on everyone. Our system is very time consuming.

No constitutional provision is more expressive of our nature than the so-called “separation of church and state.” In fact separation of church and state does not appear anywhere in our constitution or in the amendments to the constitution. That expression comes from the pen of Thomas Jefferson in a note that he wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association. The term stuck in the American mind and is now seen by many as foundational. In reality it is commentary from Jefferson and has no legal standing.

The First Amendment to the Constitution attempts to clarify the relationship between church and state. The amendment points American policy in a direction, but leaves room for endless debate. The first amendment makes two commitments. The first is “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The second promises that Congress shall make no law “prohibiting the free exercise of religion.” Note should be made that both commitments are negative standards. In reality there is no statement about what religion or Congress CAN do. The two provisions put no restrictions on religion. The restrictions are placed on Congress.

The First Amendment does not define establishment and does not define free exercise. These words frame all of the discussions that have taken place about the First Amendment. The confusion was ongoing until the early 1990s. In 1993 The Religious Freedom Restoration Act was signed into law. Supposedly the act protects churches and religious organization from the government imposing actions that interfere with the free exercise of religion. What does that mean? In practice every time any government agency, state or federal, makes a provision that involves religious institutions or individuals, the potential of a suit exists. Some of those cases make their way all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. At that point a particular law means what a majority of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices say it means.

Present Supreme Court cases that involve religion cannot avoid a discussion of the influence of Justice Antonin Scalia, who recently died. No one has questioned the integrity of Justice Scalia. He was a jurist of strong opinions. As a person he was known as a charming and gracious man. Those who disagreed with his opinions were still his friends. Scalia insisted that an author’s words mean exactly what the author intended and nothing more. What the words of the constitution and its amendments say is what it means.

Most jurists do not believe the constitution and its amendments are as clear as Scalia would have us believe. Justice Scalia was a devout Roman Catholic. Over his tenure on the High Court he disagreed with The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty on most religious liberty cases that reached the Supreme Court.

Now differing opinions are set to clash in the case known as Zubik v. Burwell. The case is a bit complicated, but is most interesting because it is one of those cases that are pending to be heard by a Supreme Court with only eight members since the death of Scalia. The case involves a contraceptive mandate under the Affordable Care Act (sometimes knows as Obamacare). Is the requirement valid under The Religious Freedom Restoration Act? The use of contraceptives is a controversy that is very sensitive to many Roman Catholics. Half of the remaining eight High Court members are Roman Catholic. The Baptist Committee on Religious Liberty has filed a brief on the case.

I am sharing this particular case with my readers because I believe it is worthy of the attention and knowledge of the general public. Every American citizen should have awareness of key issues in the American adventure. I am sharing this also to illustrate the complexity of the American system of government.

We are in the midst of a national presidential election. Issues, accusations and slogans are bouncing off the walls. A Supreme Court justice has died. The appointment of a new justice has been hijacked and placed in limbo until after we elect a new president. A critical, far-reaching suit has landed in the laps of a short-handed Supreme Court. The case affects many thousands of American women.

Our founding fathers were clear that they did not want an official, endorsed religion for the Unites States. They wanted religious freedom for the nation’s citizens. They left out the details. Devils are lurking in the details. America is a one-of-a-kind nation. Chaos multiplies the possibilities. May we ever be so.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.