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Marty invokes founders in discussion of church-state separation at annual lectures |
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Written by Mary L. Wimberley, Samford University
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Thursday, 29 April 2010 |
 BIRMINGHAM -- Martin E. Marty, a prominent interpreter of religion and culture, drew on historical episodes and figures such as Montesquieu, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison to clarify aspects of religious liberty and church-state separation for audiences at Samford University April 27-28.
His presentations were part of the annual Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State, a series sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and hosted by Samford.
Supporting the separation of church and state does not mean being against religion, Marty said.
"There are strong impulses in society to say that you serve religion by protecting and privileging it," Marty said, but there is a difference in protection and privilege, which is defined as a right or immunity granted as a benefit. "There are all kinds of ways to protect religion without privileging it," he said.
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Marty told how 18th century French philosopher Montesquieu, who wrote
that religion is more harmed than helped by favoritism, influenced the
writers of the U.S. Constitution on matters of separation of church and
state.
"Montesquieu never visited America, but they were reading
him," he said of the 55 founders who gathered in Philadelphia,
Pa., for the Constitutional Convention.
In his writings, George
Washington used 28 different names for God, such as First Architect, but
not one was biblical, Marty said. "They were looking for language that
would enlarge the context."
The founders, he said, solved the
religion problem by not solving the religion problem.
During the
three-part series, Marty also told how writings and beliefs of Franklin
and Madison played roles in religious liberty.
To some extent,
the quality of indifference, such as that exhibited by Franklin,
contributed to the lack of religious references in the Constitution, he
said.
Franklin was religious, but didn't like the dogma
associated with it. Nor did he like defining religions, and opposed
zealotry and fanatics, Marty said, noting that zealousness and
difference both play a large role in religion.
"Religion in the
end almost always calls for profound, sustained passionate commitment,"
said Marty, who is an ordained Lutheran minister who taught for 35 years
at the University of Chicago, primarily in the divinity school.
A
degree of indifference helped move along the framing of the
Constitution, which involved people who had convictions, but who had to
made decisions and eventually go home.
Although Franklin once
questioned why the Framers did not have morning prayers to help them in
their task, the idea was scuttled, in part because there were no funds
for a chaplain.
Also, Marty said, the Framers knew it would get
them in trouble. "They were passionate people, but they knew that
introducing religion into the setting would get them in trouble." The
situation, he said, "was a close-up of how it would be in the republic."
Madison
predicted that it would be difficult to trace a line of separation
between the rights of religion and civil authority without collisions
and doubts. And although little is known about his religious stand as an
adult, Madison saw no need for a religious protection clause in the
Constitution, but later became a key figure in writing the First
Amendment.
Marty said it is not easy to trace the line of
distinction, citing current court cases such as those involving military
endorsement of chaplains and lobbying by Catholic bishops on healthcare
reform.
"Madison anticipated that it would be impossible to
trace a line of distinction in all cases," Marty said. "A wall may be
slender and have holes, but it's a wall. Madison said that a line wasn't
something you could storm. And, you could see people on the other
side."
"Separation is important, and whenever we talk of
convergence we must recognize potential problems," Marty said. He
continued by saying that Madison advised defending rights of religion,
but not privileging religion.
While at Samford, Marty and the BJC staff spoke
to student groups and classes.
The annual lectureship was
established in 2004, when the Shurdens, of Macon, Ga., made a gift to
enhance the programs of the Baptist Joint Committee. The lectures are
held at Mercer University every three years and at another seminary,
college or university in other years. The Shurdens both taught at Mercer
for many years.
The BJC is a 74-year-old religious liberty
organization dedicated to defending and extending God-given religious
liberty for all.
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