The early Years Continued (Article 5)

Alexis de Tocqueville Discovers the Importance of Religion in America

When the French jurist, Alexis de Tocqueville, visited the United States in 1831, he became so impressed with what he saw that he went home and wrote one of the best definitive studies on the American culture and Constitutional system that had been published up to that time. His book was called Democracy in America. Concerning religion in America, de Tocqueville said: On my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things.

(Democracy in America , 2 vols. [1840; New York: Vintage Books, 1945], 1:319.)

He described the situation as follows: Religion in America takes no direct part in the government of society, but it must be regarded as the first of their political institutions. . . . I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion - f o r who can search the human heart?—but I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society. (Ibid, p.316.)

European Philosophers Turned Out to Be Wrong

In Europe, it had been popular to teach that religion and liberty were enemies of each other. De Tocqueville saw the very opposite happening in America. He wrote: The philosophers of the eighteenth century explained in a very simple manner the gradual decay of religious faith. Religious zeal, said they, must necessarily fail the more generally liberty is established and knowledge diffused. Unfortunately, the facts by no means accord with their theory. There are certain populations in Europe whose unbelief is only equaled by their ignorance and debasement; while in America, one of the freest and most enlightened nations i n the world, the people fulfill with fervor all the outward duties of religion. (Ibid., p. 319.)

A New Kind of Religious Vitality Emerges in America

De Tocqueville pointed out that " i n France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united." (Ibid.) He then pointed out that the early American colonists "brought with them into the New World a form of Christianity which I cannot better describe than by styling it a democratic and republican religion. This contributed powerfully to the establishment of a republic and a democracy in public affairs; and from the beginning, politics and religion contracted an alliance which has never been dissolved." (Ibid. p.311.)

However, he emphasized the fact that this religious undergirding of the political structure was a common denominator of moral teachings in different denominations and not the political pressure of some national church hierarchy.

Said he: The sects [different denominations] that exist in the United States are innumerable. They all differ in respect to the worship which is due to the Creator; but they all agree in respect to the duties which are due from man to man. Each sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner, but all sects preach the same moral law in the name of G o d . . . . All the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the s a m e . . . . There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America. Ibid., p. 314.)

It was astonishing to de Tocqueville that liberty and religion could be combined in such a balanced structure of harmony and good order. He wrote: The revolutionists of America are obliged to profess an ostensible respect for Christianity morality and equity, which does not permit them to violate want only the laws that oppose their designs. . . . Thus, while the law permits the Americans to do what-they please, religion prevents them from conceiving, and forbids them to commit, what is rash or unjust. (Ibid., p. 316.)

De Tocqueville Describes the Role of Religion in the Schools

De Tocqueville found that the schools, especially in New England, incorporated the basic tenets of religion right along with history and political science in order to prepare the student for adult life. He wrote: In New England every citizen receives the elementary notions of human knowledge; he is taught, moreover, the doctrines and the evidences of his religion, the history of his country, and the leading features of its Constitution. In the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts, it is extremely rare to find a man imperfectly acquainted with all these things, and a person wholly ignorant of them is a sort of phenomenon. (Ibid.,p.327.)

De Tocqueville Describes the Role of the American Clergy

Alexis de Tocqueville saw a unique quality of cohesive strength emanating from the clergy of the various churches in America. After noting that all the clergy seemed anxious to maintain "separation of church and state," he nevertheless observed that collectively they had a great influence on the morals and customs of public life. This indirectly reflected itself in the formulating of laws and ultimately in fixing the moral and political climate of the American commonwealth. As a result, he wrote: This led me to examine more attentively than I had hitherto done the station which the American clergy occupy in political society. I learned with surprise that they filled no public appointments; I did not see one of them in the administration, and they are not even represented in the legislative assemblies. (Ibid.,p. 320.)

How different this was from Europe, where the clergy nearly always belonged to a national church and occupied seats of power. He wrote: The unbelievers in Europe attack the Christians as their political opponents rather than as their religious adversaries; they hate the Christian religion as the opinion of a [political] party much more than as an error of belief; and they reject the clergy less because they are the representatives of the Deity than because they are the allies of government. (Ibid., p. 325)

In America, he noted, the clergy remained politically separated from the government but nevertheless provided a moral stability among the people which permitted the government to prosper. In other words, there was separation of church and state but not separation of state and religion.

(The above was taken from a book entitled The 5000 Year Leap, A Miracle That Changed the World by W. Cleon Skousen)

EDITORS NOTE: From the time of the signing of the Constitution until 1831 (actually until the 1950’s), religion was taught in our schools. How then could a group of intelligent people determine that God can’t even be mentioned in our schools and prayer isn’t allowed because of some ridicules notice of separation of church and state?

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Ray R Barmore
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