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On Faith Garret Hashimoto |
Christians have duty
to help governmentWe hear it said all too often nowadays that religion -- especially Christianity -- and government must be completely severed because the Constitution requires it. Nothing could be further from the historical facts.
The First Amendment's phrase "Congress shall make no law establishing religion" referred only to establishing a particular Christian denomination like the Congregationalists or Baptists as the national church, in the manner of the Church of England. The first three drafts of the amendment explicitly used the word "denomination," showing that this term was used interchangeably with the word "religion."
The idea of cutting government adrift from the influence of religion, a reference by the founders to the Christian religion particularly, would have been unthinkable.
As Joseph Story, appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President James Madison in 1811, said: "We are not to attribute this prohibition of a national religious establishment (in the First Amendment) to an indifference to religion in general, and especially to Christianity (which none could hold in more reverence than the framers of the Constitution). Any attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation."
One reason given by Thomas Jefferson is that, as the founders saw, our rights and liberties are anchored in God. He wrote: "And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have lost the only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?"
A second reason is that the rules of conduct that guide and sanction our behavior toward others are undergirded and given authoritative power by religion. George Washington's farewell address was passionate in its assertion that, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. ... Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
Religion is as essential to a functioning, nondestructive social system as nourishing food is to the body. As founder Zephaniah Swift, author of America's first legal text, wrote, "The Christian doctrines inculcate a purity of heart and holiness of life which constitutes its chief glory." John Witherspoon, who signed the Declaration of Independence, declared, "There is not only an excellence in the Christian morals but a manifest superiority in them to those which are derived from any other source."
The application of moral values and ideals finds its most concrete and socially crucial form in the mutually supportive family unit that nurtures and instructs our future generations.
The Hawaii Christian Coalition believes it is the duty of Christians and others to help government for the preservation of society by the establishment of strong families in the homes, where fathers and mothers teach their children to honor God and country; to respect elders, government leaders and teachers; and to love their neighbors as they love themselves.
We believe that government is an extension of family ties and that the families' promotion of morality, decency, truth and righteousness is essential in the establishment of strong moral values and the ultimate protection of good from evil.
The Hawaii Christian Coalition's Voter Guides will give the voters of our state the choice to determine if candidates for office share these values and principles. We ask questions on education, government, morality and health to see if prospective legislators share the values and position supported by the coalition.
The Hawaii Christian Coalition will be calling upon the people of Hawaii to once again re-establish and reinforce the values upon which our nation was founded, and the assertion on which that foundation was laid: "America, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Garret T. Hashimoto is chairman of the Hawaii Christian Coalition.
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