New Quaker Notebook

Eisenhower insults the Busheviks. A friend sent me the following augural statement by Dwight Eisenhower, from a letter he wrote to his brother during his first term as US president:

"Now it is true that I believe this country is following a dangerous trend when it permits too great a degree of centralization of governmental functions. I oppose this—in some instances the fight is a rather desperate one. But to attain any success it is quite clear that the Federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it. The political processes of our country are such that if a rule of reason is not applied in this effort, we will lose everything—even to a possible and drastic change in the Constitution. This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon "moderation" in government. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."[1]

So how did we get here from there, really? I perceive a regretful difference between our present-day "war president" and this war general and small-government Republican.

1. See The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, vol xv, part vi, ch 13, document 1147, November 8, 1954: To Edgar Newton Eisenhower. This letter is available online at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission.

Pox Americana. After Jesus was dragged before Pilate, the Roman governor asked, "What is it you have done?"[1] The question is significant. Pilate wants to know how Jesus fits into the framework of the Roman justice system, but he quickly finds that Jesus doesn't fit at all—he stands perfectly above this human-directed establishment. Jesus said in response to Pilate's question: "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."[2]

I mention this because, as a Christian and a Quaker, one of the many things I find so compelling and attractive about the United States as a system of government is the inviolable separation of church and state that is sewn into its Constitution. It is not merely a mistake, it is a heresy on the part of Christian Reconstructionists to read into the US Constitution policies and doctrines that really aren't there. As for their efforts to divine the intentions of our country's founding fathers, those intentions, whatever they were, are irrelevant. There may be reasonable historic value in knowing their intentions, for that is the stuff of biographies, but it does not change what has been written and accepted. As in basic contract law, what happens before the contract is prepared and signed may bring light to the darkest parts, but you don't in fact change the contract, or its language, by any appeal to what happened before it was written and signed. You can amend the contract later on, effectively making a new, superseding contract, but any appeal to prior intentions doesn't by itself make any change to the contract.

The US Constitution has been changed, er, amended, several times and may be amended in the future, too. With Article VI, no religious test is to be required of anyone who holds public office,[3] and the First Amendment prohibits Congress from dabbling in religions.[4] It was Thomas Jefferson who gave us the phrase "wall of separation between church and state," which was his clear interpretation (his intention, to use the language of the Christian Reconstructionist) of the First Amendment.[5]

It is no secret that there are active today heretical Christian cults which seek to make Jesus Christ a political messiah, another earthly ruler, a functionary of the state. Their aim is to make his kingdom this contemporary world and to rule it as if they were anointed for this humongous blessing. It is no secret, too, that they have mingled with the GOP, like intestinal worms, and with their squirming discomfort they influence the decisions of government. That influence unfortunately extends therefore to the establishment of a religion. But this religion is not that of our Lord Jesus. It comes from another source entirely.

1. John 18:35.
2. John 18:36.
3. Article VI, Clause 3: "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
4. First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
5. This language was in Jefferson's January 1802 letter in response to the Danbury Baptists Association, Connecticut. Jefferson wrote: "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state." Read both letters at the US Constitution Online.