The Citizens' Church

It has been obvious to many of you that there is more to my previous occasions of writing about colonial history and the intersection of church and state.  The history has been interesting and I always enjoy the ironies, especially those that accompany my story of becoming an Episcopalian and a priest to boot. 

The story behind these histories is that of the necessity and effect of the First Amendment.  Unlicensed preachers being jailed, pulpits used to pronounce rebellion, towns providing for all denominations to worship, churches purchasing and remodeling courthouses for worship each expose a piece of that dynamic peculiar to colonial and post colonial life in our country.

Here's what was written in 1787:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

It's worth remembering that the same authority that jailed those Baptist preachers was exactly what the first clause of the amendment removes.  Until the War for Independence the Church of England, more specifically the Bishop of London was responsible for religious life in the lower colonies.  The C of E was established in Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia.  Taxes paid for clergy to serve as rectors and vicars.   

Once the war was over there was no more C of E in the states.  An already strained system that could not provide adequate clergy leadership before the war was now decimated by the loss of loyalists priests who returned home or translated to other British holdings like Canada.  But the hope of the church to foster a civic -- not always civil -- attention to and practice of moral judgement and behavior was not lost. 

The second clause of the amendment reorders the authority of the church to its constituent members by protecting their right to choose to which religion they as citizens will adhere.  The free of "free exercise" is that of each citizen.  Religion is not free, churches aren't free, we are free. 

From that first freedom, augmented by those of speech, of the press, of assembly, and of petition the church's authority is reordered, not removed.  Ours is no longer a state church with bishops retiring to the House of Lords but a citizen's church now capable of moral leadership in a new nation. 

It was as if the framers said we want "a church," we just want it to get its authority from somewhere other than a crown, or a senate, or a congress, or a president.  We want a citizen's church and even better citizens' churches! 

Disestablishment and free exercise together are the germ of the American Experiment. The framers gave the world a gift.  I think we are still unwrapping it.