Debunking a Misleading Claim from a Texas Christian Nationalist
The Constitution Is a Fundamentally Secular Document
Over the weekend, The Wife™️was watching an Instagram reel from Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D-Travis County), who is developing a bit of a following because of his faith-based criticism of Christian nationalism. Talarico is himself a Christian and currently studying for his Master of Divinity at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
The clip shows Talarico questioning one of his Republican colleagues about the separation of church and state in response to legislation that would require public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms. I wrote about a similar bill in Louisiana nearly a year ago. Although the Louisiana Ten Commandments law was initially blocked by a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit limited the effect of the lower court order. The case, Roake v. Brumley, is still working its way through the appellate process.
In response, the Republican said, “Did that first Congress–that earliest Congress–when they authorized the production of a complete King James Bible, was that a separation of church and state?” The line is incredibly misleading. Typically, when the initiated refer to authorizations, we’re talking about some formal law that’s passed authorizing production and some appropriation of public funds. When Congress is discussed, we think of the body that currently exists. It turns out that the Republican in the video presents a misleading case.
Sitting from March 1789 to March 1791, the 1st Congress did not authorize the production of any Bible. The Annals of Congress from the 1st Congress don’t show any record of any such activity. Talarico’s Republican colleague may have been referring to the so-called “Aitken Bible.” Produced by Philadelphia printer Robert Aitken, the Aitken Bible was published in 1781, six years before the Constitution was drafted, seven years before it was ratified, and nearly eight years before it took effect.
In 1781, the nascent United States was operating under the Articles of Confederation, which didn’t contain a bill of rights, nor any clause prohibiting the establishment of religion or separating church and state. There isn’t a reference to “God” or any deity. The only reference to religion is found in Article III, which states, “The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their Liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.”
The United States in Congress Assembled was the national legislature from March 1781 to March 1789. A committee did produce a recommendation that reads, “Whereupon, Resolved, That the United States in Congress assembled, highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interest of religion as well as an instance of the progress of arts in this country, and being satisfied from the above report, of his care and accuracy in the execution of the work, they recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States, and hereby authorise him to publish this recommendation in the manner he shall think proper.”
This is an endorsement of the Aitken Bible. The war for independence from Great Britain wouldn’t end for nearly another year when the Treaty of Paris was signed in September 1783. States couldn’t import Bibles from overseas, so Aitken took it upon himself to print a domestically produced edition. Although the United States in Congress Assembled endorsed the Aitken Bible, no public funds were ever given to Aitken.
Aitken would write to George Washington in June 1790, mentioning that he had lost money on his production of the Bible. Aitken explained, “The peace which took place soon after [the American Revolution], removed the Obstructions to importation, and so glutted the market with Bibles that I was obliged to sell mine much below prime cost; and in the End, I actually Sunk above £3000 by the impression.” Congress didn’t appropriate any money for Aitken related to the losses he incurred.
Talarico’s Republican colleague would go on to say that she disagrees with the notion that the separation of church and state is “an established fact.” It’s frustrating that some still dispute this established fact, not only Talarico’s Republican colleague but also the current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. As I’ve written before, there were undoubtedly very religious people who participated in the founding of the United States and its cornerstone documents. However, the Constitution contains no references to God or a higher power, and religion is mentioned only twice, both in the context of prohibitions on religious tests for office, the establishment of a national religion, and interfering with the practice of religion.
The Constitution is a fundamentally secular document. That doesn’t mean people who were involved in its creation weren’t Christians. However, the protections of the First Amendment restrict the federal government from creating a national religion or interfering with the people’s religious practices. This has been understood to protect people who live their lives from religion. To force schools to display copies of the Ten Commandments is to obviously and blatantly undermine the First Amendment for the sake of historical revisionism or denial that is on par with the so-called “lost cause” myth, slavery and Jim Crow, and how the United States treated its indigenous populations.