10 Truths About America's Christian Heritage

Coral Ridge Ministries
Dr. D. James Kennedy, Founder

From the 10 Truths Series
TRUTH # 6 - Every State Constitution Acknowledges God

The First Amendment begins by declaring, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

For secularists and atheists, this language bans any and all interaction between church and state—no matter how minor— lest it somehow establish religion. Symbols of faith, such as crèche scenes, or acknowledgements of God, such as graduation prayer or Ten Commandments monuments, are verboten under this understanding of the First Amendment—one which federal courts have generally embraced. Many Christians, however, are more concerned with the free exercise of religion guaranteed in the First Amendment than with the improbable idea that, for example, a Ten Commandments display on public property somehow establishes a religion. The Founders, they point out, drafted the First Amendment to prohibit the establishment of an official taxpayer-supported national church, like the Church of England, not to divorce government and religion.

The Founders were not afraid to devote tax monies for Christian ends. They used public funds to support Christian missionaries; they used government buildings for church services; they encouraged the use of the Bible in the classroom; and they instituted days of prayer and thanksgiving. Nevertheless, they did not want to impose a national denomination, as the King of England had imposed the Church of England upon the people of Great Britain.

The States Can Foster and Encourage Religion
Although the Founders did not want a national church, they did leave open to the individual states the option of establishing government- endorsed churches. Thomas Jefferson claimed that the “power to prescribe any religious exercise … must then rest with the states.” Joseph Story, appointed in 1811 by President James Madison to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, wrote that it was the duty of government “to foster and encourage” the nation’s religious beliefs. In his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, Justice Story explained, “The whole power over the subject of religion is left exclusively to the state governments, to be acted upon according to their justice and the state constitutions.”

A look at these state constitutions shows that they had a concern for this subject. In his sermon entitled “Church and State,” Dr. D. James Kennedy noted, “Through all fifty state constitutions, without exception, there runs … [an] appeal and reference to God who is the Creator of our liberties and the preserver of our freedoms.” It is the duty of government “to foster and encourage” the nation’s religious beliefs.

Writing in 1864, historian Benjamin Franklin Morris noted, “An examination of the present Constitutions of the various states, now existing, will show that the Christian religion and its institutions are recognized as the religion of the Government and the nation.”

States Endorsed Christianity
While some believe that state endorsement of religion ceased with the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, a quick survey through American history shows this is not the case.
Long after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and well into the nineteenth century, some states had mandated particular denominations to be their official state religions. Massachusetts and Connecticut, for example, had identified the Congregational Church as the state church. Most other states, however, opted to endorse Christianity as their state religion, rather than endorsing any particular church, sect, or denomination. The South Carolina Constitution of 1778, which was still in effect at the time the U.S. Constitution was ratified, declared, “The Christian Protestant religion shall be deemed, and is hereby constituted and declared to be, the established religion of this State.”

Until 1968, the New Hampshire Constitution endorsed evangelical Christianity. The constitution explained that “morality and piety, rightly grounded on evangelical principles, will give the best and greatest security to government.” It declared, however, that “every denomination of Christians demeaning themselves quietly, and as good citizens of the state, shall be equally under the protection of the laws.” This proclamation remained in the state constitution for nearly 180 years after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. In 1818, three decades after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, Connecticut adopted a new state constitution declaring, “Each and every society or denomination of Christians in this state, shall have and enjoy the same and equal powers, rights, and privileges; and shall have power and authority to support and maintain the ministers or teachers of their respective denominations….”

State Funding for Christian Education
In early America, such declarations were not controversial, because the citizenry universally acknowledged that they lived in a Christian nation. Some state constitutions empowered the government to fund Christian education and worship. Until 1833, the Massachusetts Constitution mandated its state legislature to “require the several towns … to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of God and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality.” More than a century after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, Delaware approved language in its state constitution proclaiming, “[I]t is the duty of all men frequently to assemble together for the public worship of Almighty God; and piety and morality, on which the prosperity of communities depends, are hereby promoted.”

These are not aberrations from an otherwise secular system of government. America’s Founders believed that the Christian religion should receive encouragement from the states.
Connecticut’s flag bears the state motto, “He Who Transplanted Still Sustains.” The motto’s origin may be traced to Psalm 80:8: “Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it” (KJV).

State Religious Tests and Oaths of Office
Even though the framers of the U.S. Constitution endorsed Article VI, declaring that “no religious test shall ever be required” for a person serving in the federal government, it was understood that the states would be free to impose religious qualifications for their own government positions. In fact, some signers of the U.S. Constitution played major roles in drafting provisions in their state constitutions that barred non-Christians from holding positions in government.

For example, George Read and Richard Bassett of Delaware helped to draft the Delaware Constitution of 1776. It required the following oath for all government officers:
I, ________, do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.

Nathaniel Gorham helped to author the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. It also required an oath of office, which stated, “I, ______, do declare, that I believe the Christian religion, and have a firm persuasion of its truth.”

Likewise, William Paterson endorsed the New Jersey Constitution of 1776, which imposed standards for attaining public office that specified that “all persons,professing a belief in the faith of any Protestant sect… shall be capable of being elected into any office.” Such “religious tests” continued at the state-level long after the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Several state constitutions, including the Tennessee Constitution of 1870, prohibited atheists from holding public office. Tennessee declared, “No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this state.”

No amount of revisionist history can erase the obvious evidence contained in America’s state constitutions. The Founders, along with the authors of the various state constitutions, openly encouraged religious convictions among their citizens. These men recognized Christianity as the religion of the nation and their state governments. And, education being a power “reserved to the States” by the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, they established their schools to further the Christian religion. We'll see more evidence of this in the following chapter.