Of course, the Declaration has no legal weight. Presidents and judges swear their oath to the Constitution which is the Supreme Law.
The Declaration did express some ceremonial deism; but both the Declaration, and the legal basis of the Republic (the Constitution) are decidely secular. Because of the separation of church and state, America is festooned with temples, shrines, and churches of every conceivable variety. It is a land where people are free to be human beings, and to practice their faith without any harassment or coercion.
John Adams stated outright that the United States was not founded as a Christian Nation, and this was ratified by the Senate shortly after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
I don't know if there were any Christians in the Founding Fathers, or not. There were certainly deists and atheists. But in any case, personal beliefs are irrelevant. They desired to forge a country where men were free to think and to believe in accordance with their own consciences. They did so.
The attempt of ANY religion to insert itself into the realm of Government can ONLY be to advance a political agenda. But religion is not a government Institution (well, it is in Iran and places...but not in the United States)--so there can be no justification for Government being entangled with religion.
Those who attempt to entangle the State with religion against the wisdom of the Founding Fathers place their very religious freedom at risk. They trade their guaranteed and lawful right to think, believe, and worship as their conscience dictates--for the capricious expediency of the moment. It is hard to imagine how people could be so ignorant as to trade a Constitutional RIGHT for a political game of chance and numbers; but as Plato said: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." Or as Einstein said: "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits..." |
