Where Is Mielke’s God In The Constitution?
In Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district, Dave Obey, a longtime Democratic member of the House of Representatives, is finally retiring. Republicans are eager take the seat for themselves this year, and Dan Mielke has stepped forward as one of two candidates seeking the position.
Prime among Dan Mielke’s campaign issues is religion – specifically, worship of the Christian God. Mielke devotes an entire section of his campaign web site to descriptions of the terrible consequences he believes will result if Americans elect non-Christians to Congress. “A nation without God is a nation without hope,” Mielke writes, “The wisest thing we can do to restore freedom, security and prosperity to the United States is to elect Godly leaders who truly fear God and allow Him to guide their decisions… The foundation of this Nation is based on a firm belief in God.”
Mielke may assert that the United States was founded upon firm belief in the Christian God, but the actual founding document suggests something different. The Constitution of the United States of America doesn’t mention “God” even once. The Constitution forbids any religious test for public office, and the First Amendment bans the government from taking action to establish religion.
Contrary to Mielke’s claims, separation from God, and from other religious concepts, is at the foundation of the American national identity.
I would disagree with you. Our Constitution and our laws are based on biblical principles of right and wrong. you are correct, however , that our founding fathers wanted to keep religion out of Government and I agree with them completely. But, belief in a Creator and the various religions that seek to worship God are two different things. Our Founding Fathers acknowledged a belief in God and based much of their decisions on the moral guidelines set down in the Bible. What they did not want was a specific Church trying to use government to promote their specific religions beliefs. I agree with them completely.
Sincerely,
Dan Mielke
Dan, the Constitution as law is not based in “right and wrong”, but rather in the effort to build a democratic society. The Constitution has an emphasis on personal liberty that is missing in the Christian Bible. Christian values are missing in the Constitution. Where in the Constitution are the values such as “having no God before me”, or a ban on graven images?
It has often been seen on the Internet that to find God in the Constitution, all one has to do is read it, and see how often the Framers used the words “God,” or “Creator,” “Jesus,” or “Lord.” Except for one notable instance, however, none of these words ever appears in the Constitution, neither the original nor in any of the Amendments. The notable exception is found in the Signatory section, where the date is written thusly: “Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven”. The use of the word “Lord” here is not a religious reference, however. This was a common way of expressing the date, in both religious and secular contexts. This lack of any these words does not mean that the Framers were not spiritual people, any more than the use of the word Lord means that they were. What this lack of these words is expositive of is not a love for or disdain for religion, but the feeling that the new government should not involve itself in matters of religion. In fact, the original Constitution bars any religious test to hold any federal office in the United States.
Thanks to James MacDonald for the idea.