Chapter 33: How God Was Written Out of the U.S. Constitution. In 1832, Dr. James R. Wilson, a professor of theology at the Seminary for the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, wrote: "When the country was plainly in peril, and the arm of Jehovah perceived to be necessary for our defense, then the God of creation was acknowledged.
But when He had conducted our armies to victory and set our country free from the oppression of foreign despotism, then with a blackness of ingratitude and an atheistic impiety, His name was erased from the fundamental law of the empire." The "fundamental law" to which Dr. Wilson was referring was the U.S. Constitution, and he was exactly right. Neither the words "God" nor "Jesus Christ" appear anywhere in the Constitution. The Constitution makes no direct acknowledgment of God whatsoever.
In some ways, this is the logical development that flows from the Declaration of Independence. As we've seen, the Declaration insists that the governments derive their authority from the people rather than from God. Since that is what the men at the Constitutional Convention believed, it's only logical that they refused to acknowledge God in the Constitution. Why We Know This Was Purposeful. Dr. Wilson argued that the omission of God was intentional.
"It is believed that there never existed, previous to this Constitution, any national deed like this since the creation of the world, a nation having no God. In vain shall we search the annals of pagan Greece and Rome, of modern Asia, Africa, pagan America, and the Isles of the Sea; they have all worshipped some God. The United States has none." But here let us pause over this astounding fact: Was it a mere omission? Did the Convention that framed the Constitution forget to name the living God?
Was this an omission in some moment of national frenzy when the nation forgot God? That indeed would be a great sin. God says, "The nations that forget God shall be turned into hell." Psalms 9:17. It was not, however, a thoughtless act, an unintended omission. It was a deliberate deed whereby God was rejected. That's a serious charge that Dr. Wilson made, but he was exactly right. The Founding Fathers deliberately left any mention of God out of the Constitution.
In doing so, they established a strikingly new precedent. I say that because, in contrast to the Constitution, all of the colonial charters specifically acknowledged God, and the key documents that comprise the British Constitution likewise recognize God. Here are a few such examples: English Charter of Liberties of Henry I, 1100. "Know that by the mercy of God and the common counsel of the barons of the whole kingdom of England, I have been crowned king of said kingdom." Magna Carta, 1215.
"John, by the grace of God, King of England, know that before God, for the health of our soul and those of our ancestors and heirs, to the honor of God." English Bill of Rights, 1689. "And the said Lords spiritual and temporal and commons, seriously considering how it hath pleased Almighty God in His marvelous providence and merciful goodness to this nation, to provide and preserve their said Majesty's royal persons most happily to reign over us." Act of Settlement, 1700.
"After the making of which statute and the settlement therein contained Your Majesty's good subjects who were restored to the full and free possession and enjoyment of their rights and liberties by the providence of God, giving success to Your Majesty's just undertakings." We must remember that the sole reason the Constitutional Convention was convened in the first place was to correct the shortcomings in the former Articles of Confederation.
The enacting clause of the Articles of Confederation says this: "It has pleased the great Governor of the world to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in Congress to approve of and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual union." So in the Articles of Confederation, the thirteen independent states acknowledged that their authority to govern came from God.
In contrast, the men at the Constitutional Convention, convened to modify those articles, omitted any such acknowledgment. We should also remember that in drafting the U.S. Constitution, the framers reviewed the various state constitutions and used them as models. And every one of those state constitutions, except that of Virginia, makes some reference to God.
To illustrate, the Constitution of Massachusetts, ratified in 1780, contains the following acknowledgment of God in its preamble: "We therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the great legislator of the universe, in affording us in the course of his providence an opportunity, deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, violence, or surprise, of entering into an original, explicit, and solemn compact with each other, and of forming a new constitution of civil
government for ourselves and posterity, and devoutly imploring his direction in so interesting a design, do agree upon, ordain, and establish the following Declaration of Rights and frame of government as the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." As I said, only one state constitution made no mention of God: that of Virginia.
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison largely drafted the Virginia state constitution. Interestingly, Jefferson was the chief architect of the Declaration of Independence, which denied that governments get their authority from God. And Madison was the chief architect of the Constitution, which omits any reference to God. In prayer, we don't trust. The Founding Fathers publicly declared that the colonies could never have won their revolution without God's help.
However, their private actions showed how little trust they truly placed in God. When they came together to draw up the Constitution, the blueprint for their new nation, they didn't feel any need to ask for God's assistance through prayer. This was all the more conspicuous because the delegates to the earlier Second Continental Congress had always opened their sessions with prayer.
When deliberations at the Constitutional Convention became deadlocked, Benjamin Franklin moved that they begin the sessions each day with prayer, just as the delegates had done in 1776.
He prepared a moving speech imploring the delegates with these words: "In this situation of this assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we sensed danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection.
Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence, we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend, or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?
I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?
We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings that, "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain those that build it." I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our little partial local interests, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and byword down to future ages.
And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.
I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessings on our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of the city be requested to officiate in that service." Reading Franklin's inspiring words, I can hardly imagine anyone turning down his plea, particularly because it was coming from such a venerable person. However, only Roger Sherman and a couple of others supported Franklin's motion.
George Washington presided at the Constitutional Convention. If he had backed Franklin's request for prayer, it would surely have passed. But he didn't. As a result, Franklin's motion was benched, and the Convention continued without prayer.
Franklin later wrote in his journal, "The Convention thought prayer was unnecessary, except three or four persons." If the men at the Constitutional Convention didn't think they needed God's insight to draft a constitution for a new nation, it's no wonder that they made no acknowledgment of him in that very same constitution. Washington skips church. It's no surprise that George Washington didn't support Franklin's plea for prayer.
That's because during the entire course of the Constitutional Convention, which extended for four months, Washington attended church only twice. I know because his diary reveals it. Imagine someone having the colossal weight on his shoulders of drawing up the blueprint for a new nation, yet he neither prays before the daily sessions nor attends church regularly during the Convention. No one could neglect such essentials except someone who didn't feel he needed God's assistance. But it wasn't only Washington.
Few at the Constitutional Convention felt a need to rely upon God. And why should they? They had just fought and won a war in total disobedience to God's laws. The Declaration of Independence, written to justify that war, declared that governments get their authority from the people rather than from God. So why should they turn to God now? Not founded on the Christian religion.
In case you think I'm misjudging the intention of those men, I want to point you to one of the first treaties the newly formed United States entered into. This was the Treaty of 1796 between the United States and Tripoli, which contains this specific declaration: "Article 11.
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 Muslims, and as the said states never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Muhammadan 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." So the Founding Fathers deliberately set up a
new kind of nation that was neither Christian, Islamic, Jewish, or pagan.
They created a country not tied to any religion. This was the fruit of a people who did not trust in God. But what would have happened if they had trusted in God?