Al Mohler vs. The Constitution

In the face of regular assurances from Christian nationalists that the Constitution contains Bible citations, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler admitted this week that the Constitution doesn’t acknowledge a debt to Christianity. At about one minute into the video below, Mohler asks and answers this question:

“Is America a Christian nation in terms of explicit Constitutional statement? No.”

I urge you to watch the video. It is just over two minutes long. It is significant in that Mohler admits something other Christian nation advocates fail to acknowledge. Mohler acknowledges that the Constitution doesn’t refer to Christianity. David Barton and those in his tradition say that the Constitution quotes the Bible verbatim. Barton says people who can’t see the Bible in the Constitution are biblically illiterate. I can only conclude that David Barton will soon declare Al Mohler biblically illiterate.

The following comments assume you have listened to the video.

Although there are many problems with Al Mohler’s clip, there is one refreshing element. He admits there is no Christian acknowledgment in the Constitution. Even though he said it was understandable at the time, he laments that it was an error that the founders didn’t include Christian language.

However, it was not an error. It was done deliberately and it was brilliant in my opinion. It allows religion to flourish. It goes some distance toward a level playing field when it comes to religion. It prevents tyranny by Christian nationalists, and it keeps the government from meddling in religious work. Error? Hardly, as Randall Balmer says, separating church and state may be America’s best idea.

Mohler says there are people who are trying to sever the Constitution from Christian assumptions, or as he says, “anything beyond itself.” I have news for Dr. Mohler, the Constitution’s framers already did that. Article VI of the Constitution contains the Supremacy Clause and the “no religious test” clause. The last two paragraphs of Article 6 reads:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

The framers severed the Constitution from religion. No one is doing it now, and Mohler can’t attach it except in his own mind.

However, attaching Christianity to the Constitution is just what Mohler would like to do. Somehow Mohler claims that everything “when the American experiment began” had a biblical worldview. Even though this is reductionistic fantasy, I would like to hear Mohler’s explanation for how the Biblical worldview about led to American moral impulses to own slaves and regulate enslavement based on race. Mohler says that only the biblical worldview explained who human beings are and why they possessed human dignity. Were the moral impulses to consider Africans and native people less than human also based on those biblical foundations, Dr. Mohler?

Mohler’s strong desire to appropriate the glow of the founding era as Christian like him causes him to whitewash the ugly parts of the founding. He glosses over a full account of the ideas which influenced the founding and the morally checkered past of the nation.

Mohler closes by exhorting his listeners to make biblical arguments regarding public policy. As long as he avoids the Christian privilege pitfall, it is fine to make his case. But, just like any citizen, he has to make those arguments on their merits. As citizens, we all have that right, no matter what our beliefs.

Today, this is one of the subjects of the last episode of my podcast for the season. Check it out here:

To purchase The Christian Past That Wasn’t, go to www.christianpast.com.