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Bishop Tobin Complains About Gov. Chafee’s Lack Of Religion, Screws Up The Constitution

01/12/11-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, of the Diocese of Providence in Rhode Island, took to his computer to complain about the decision by Governor Lincoln Chafee to not hold a prayer service before his inauguration. While saying that he is not surprised or disappointed in the decision, he spent about two pages lambasting the Governor’s rationale for not holding one.

Governor Chafee decided not to hold a public prayer service because, as his spokesman put it, the governor’s “point of view is that his inaugural day needs to respect the separation of church and state. Separation of church and state is an important constitutional principle.”

Of course, in his outrage, Bishop Tobin decided to get the whole bit about Separation of Church and State flat wrong. Pulling from the usual Evangelical talking point, Tobin states:

By now you should be aware that the exact phrase “separation of church and state” isn’t found anywhere in our nation’s Constitution but rather was a principle that evolved later on. The Constitution simply says that the Congress cannot legislate the establishment of religion nor prohibit the exercise of religion. In other words, the “separation of church and state” is meant to protect religion from the interference of the state. It was never intended to remove every spiritual aspiration, prayerful utterance or reference to God from public life.

This is incorrect. The phrase “separation of church and state” could barely be said to have evolved after the Constitution. It was penned by President Thomas Jefferson in 1802 in a letter to Danbury Baptist Church; however, the concept of the separation of church and state goes back at least to John Locke, who was the philosophical inspiration for the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Locke died in 1704. The separation of church and state can be found in a number of different ancient cultures, but within a Western concept, it goes to around that point.

It can actually be found very specifically in the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli which was ratified unanimously by the Senate. In that treaty, it states:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

It should also be noted that the concept of the separation of Church and State can be found within the Constitution itself. The first clause of the First Amendment reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

It can be said that this translates to freedom from religion and freedom of religion. This creates more of a problem for Bishop Tobin who tries, then, to use the words of both James Madison and George Washington to try and refute the notion of separation of Church and State.

Tobin wrote:

The usefulness of religion and its importance in public life have been affirmed from the beginning. James Madison, recognized as the principal author of the Constitution, wrote, “Religion is the basis and foundation of government.” And George Washington, in his farewell address, said, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”

The problem here is that Tobin assumes that Madison and Washington mean only a Christian religion. In fact, there were many Jews and even some Muslims living in the United States at the time of its founding. At the time of the First Amendment, there were still laws which excluded Catholics from all the same legal rights as Anglicans. The Founding Fathers, by and large, did not see themselves as beholden to a specific Christian religion, but to the general concept of religion. They were far more agnostic than Christian. Jefferson went so far as to expunge all references to God and the miraculous from his version of the Bible. With the exception of President John Adams, none of them were known to have attended religious services regularly. Indeed, they often made fun of Adams for his extreme devotion to Christianity.

Tobin goes on, of course:

Nor should the so-called “separation of church and state” be used as a weapon to silence the faith community, or restrict its robust participation in the debate of important public issues. I’ve found that whenever I’ve spoken out on public issues – e.g., abortion, gay marriage or immigration – some irritated souls, arguing the “separation of church and state,” will insist that I’m out of line. In fact, religious leaders have every right, indeed the duty, to speak out on public issues. If we fail to do so, we’re neglecting our role as teachers, preachers and prophets. And if we don’t bring the spiritual dimension, the moral dimension to the discussion of these issues, who will?

Unfortunately, while Bishop Tobin has the right to speak out about these issues, he does not have the right to insist upon his religious based beliefs having the force of law. That is what the entire idea behind the Separation of Church and State is about. As an average person, Bishop Tobin can speak out against these issues, if he wants, but if he wants to argue about the legality of them, his religious beliefs should not come into play. Instead, there is a need for rationality to his argument. So far, the people who have spoken or acted out against abortion or same-sex marriage have not done so from a rational point of view, but from a religious doctrine.

Rather than wanting to live in a nation of laws and rationality, Bishop Tobin continues his argument for the United States to become like General Francisco Franco’s Spain where the Roman Catholic Church had free reign over the culture. It should not be surprising that, now, Spain is rapidly sprinting away from Catholicism.

Bishop Tobin goes on to say:

Is our nation, and our state, in frequently appealing to “separation of church and state,” promoting an atheistic worldview? Are we creating a secular wasteland, bereft of any spiritual or religious influence? And is that how we want to live?

Not really. While the laws must be of a rational nature, it does not mean that people have to stop believing in religion. Unfortunately for the theocrats such as Tobin, the push is not to respect other religions and say “well, I do not believe in abortion so I will not have one” or “I do not believe in same-sex marriage, so I will not have one”, but rather that all must follow the religious dictates of a particular religion. That is different from an atheistic nation. It is a poly-religious nation. The problem is that, when religions demand adherence by those who are not their followers, it turns people against them.

Tobin concludes:

We have a ton of problems in our state – a depressed economy, a fragile social-service network, a distressed public-education system, the demise of the family, a wave of urban crime and domestic violence, and what promises to be an intense and divisive debate created by the ill-advised desire to redefine marriage.

To deal successfully with these problems our leaders will need wisdom and courage. They will need a great deal of human cooperation, but also a generous measure of God’s grace. They shouldn’t be afraid to fall on their knees and ask for God’s help. A little spiritual humility would go a long way in restoring the confidence and the moral quality of our community.

It should be noted that the fragile social-service network is a fault not of the Left, which supports keeping religion and governance separate, but of the Right, which has slashed the budgets of those programs time and time again. The same goes for the distressed public-education system. Those are problems from the often Bible thumping, religious spewing Right, and not from the Left. The attempts to deal with the causes of urban crime also come from the ‘irreligious’ Left as opposed to the religious Right which often says ‘throw away the key after you lock them up’. The same holds true for the economy.

Many of society’s ills right now come from those on the Right, who are often those breaking down the separation of Church and State rather than upholding them. Bishop Tobin also misses that in order to prevent the “demise of the family”, he would have to call for a living wage for all primary wage earners and demand laws banning divorce- which is not going to happen. As for the issue over same-sex marriage, those on the Right have no argument other than their Religion for keeping it from existing, and their arguments have no rational basis.

Finally, as a Pagan, I would not get down on my knees and pray to God if I were to seek guidance. I pray to the Goddess. There in lies the problem for Bishop Tobin. Unless he wants to make my religion illegal- which he cannot- he must learn to live with laws that respect my religious beliefs and do not infringe upon my rights to practice my religion.