It's right there in the Constitution
How many presidents of the United States were not Christians? In an interview during the last presidential campaign, presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said that being Christian was "an important part of our qualifications to lead."
By this criterion, two of our nation's greatest leaders, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, were not qualified to be President. Jefferson was a Deist, not a Christian; although Lincoln regularly attended church in Washington, he never joined one nor ever made a clear profession of standard Christian beliefs.
During the last campaign, when told about a poll that 55 percent of Americans believe the U.S. Constitution establishes a Christian nation, Sen. McCain responded: "I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation."
No, Senator, it doesn't.
The Constitution never uses "God," "Creator," "Jesus," or "Christ"; it uses "Lord" only once --"in the Year of our Lord," 1787. "Lord" here is not a religious reference, however, but a common way of expressing the date, in both religious and secular contexts. In the West today and worldwide, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews -- and atheists -- use 2009 without any religious meaning whatsoever.
Yes, the First Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, does guarantee freedom of religion -- but at the same time it forbids establishing one religion over another: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ..."
Further, Article 6 of the Constitution declares: "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
I am a professor of Religious Studies at Cal State Bakersfield and an Episcopal priest, not a political scientist or lawyer, but it is clear to me that the Bakersfield City Council, in allowing explicit Christian invocations, is both establishing a religion in Bakersfield -- Christianity -- and implicitly using a religious test: "Nobody but us Christians here."
A review by the Freedom From Religion Foundation -- of which I am not a member -- of City Council invocations from September 2009 to November 2009 shows that all but one ended with specific references to Jesus Christ, "in Jesus' name," or "in your Son's name." One prayer used "Father," "God," or "Lord" 21 times.
Modern Bakersfield is pluralistic, embracing people of many faiths --and none: I have neighbors who are Muslims and Sikhs, I have good friends who are Jews, I have agnostic and atheist students and colleagues. In excluding them, does the City Council even represent these persons?
In violating both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution, the City Council is abrogating basic republican principles of this country; the Council no longer democratically represents all the people, but only self-selected and -defined Christians. This is religious tyranny by the majority.
I urge the City Council to adopt the enlightened practice of the city where I went to high school. No, not liberal, elitist New York; nor was it the "People's Republic of Berkeley."
Lompoc. Conservative, Republican Lompoc.
During a City Council meeting on Nov. 17, Lompoc Mayor Mike Siminski stopped an invocation by a pastor when the latter said, "the only true God, as defined in the Bible ..."
Defending his action, which included following not only constitutional mandates but also City Council policy, both of which forbid promotion or advancement of one religion over others, Siminski wrote an op-ed piece in the Lompoc Record on Nov. 20: "To me, guidelines on prayer during public meetings are firm. Sectarian beliefs cannot be advanced. I took the reference to 'the only true God, as defined in the Bible' as admonishment of those who believe God is defined in other holy books, tradition or in individual conscience.
"On becoming mayor," Siminski correctly -- and bravely -- concluded, "I swore to uphold the Constitution."
Sectarian prayers that invoke specific deities violate constitutional rulings of major federal cases, including Marsh v. Chambers (1983), which decided that prayers at government meetings must be nonsectarian and nondenominational.
To avoid government endorsement of religion ("establishment"), and to represent all citizens of Bakersfield, including non-Christians and nonbelievers ("freedom of religion"), this Christian respectfully asks the Bakersfield City Council to end invocations entirely, or put in their place a moment of silence.
Certainly Thomas Jefferson would agree.
The Rev. Dr. Tim Vivian is vicar of Grace Episcopal Church in Bakersfield.
