The Connection of Christianity and the US Constitution (Research Paper Sample)

Christianity and the Constitution
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Institution
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Introduction
The question as to whether America has a Christian founding serves as a historical interest as well as implicate on the conception of religion in the American republic. Religion in American republic and its role in the State has always been on controversy having that there are two answers to the grand question. While others say that America was not founded on Christianity, others say that it was absolutely founded on Christianity. Therefore, the Christian faith influence on the constitution as held by founding fathers is a grey area when discussing how the constitution was developed (Kyle, 2017). This paper seeks to address the whole idea around the constitution and Christianity.
Christianity and the Constitution
Scholars and commenters on the American constitution do not deny that the American Founders were religious but as well contend that they were mostly deists who thought that God rarely interferes with the affairs of nations and men. The talking point is however that although America did not have a Christian founding in the creation of their theocracy, the nation was greatly guided and shaped by Christianity’s moral truths. The founders ran a regime that was highly hospitable to Christians and other individuals practicing various forms of religion (Harr et al., 2017). Therefore, the founding generation is said to have viewed religion to relate to the government and that it should support religion.
Historical truth is that the Bible together with Christianity played a pivotal role in the creation of the American constitution. It is seen that the Biblical concept of covenants is what gave birth to the Puritan-type covenants that are inscribed in the US constitution (Kyle, 2017). Pilgrims started the process called the Mayflower Compact in the year 1620 that was done heavily relying in the name of God and God’s glory is believed to have guided the process as they formed a civil body. Forming numerous Bible-inspired covenants and including them in the articles of America, they sailed all the way to the formation of the American constitution in the year 1787 (Berry, 2017).
American founding fathers borrowed largely from the Bible. A classic example is Baron Montesquieu in his “The Spirit of Laws” writes that as a people of America, they shall owe Christianity in the government certain political law which sometimes human nature can not sufficiently understand and attest (Kyle, 2017). Similarly, Sir William Blackstone, who is often quoted by the US Supreme Court, put it that God scripted the laws of nature and they form the most superior than any other law. Thus, no other human laws can validly contravene the laws of nature by God. Despite that some of the founding fathers were orthodox Christians, approximately a whopping 95 percent were active members of the Trinitarian Christian churches and Christian faith was central to their lives thus the shaping of the constitution as they wrote it (Harr et al., 2017).
Christian Ethos and the Bill of Rights
The convention in Philadelphia in the year 1787 drafted the constitution with great guarantee to religious liberty for the people in Article I. The law ratified by individual states, gave worship rights to the people that majority of Americans felt safer with the articulations in the Bill or Rights regarding religion. In Section 3, the citizens are given freedom of worship as the constitution spells that all men have indefeasible right to worship their God as their consciences dictate them. In Section 4, spells that nobody shall be subjected to punishment or disqualified from holding office for acknowledging God or having religious sentiments (Harr et al., 2017).
In the Bill of Rights Amendment I on 15th December 1791, the constitution states “Congress shall make no law respecting religion establishment, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech …” This clearly shows that the ethos of Christianity were well respected and kept a bar higher that no congress should interfere with them (Kyle, 2017). Therefore, the constitution Bill of Rights kept Christian ethos in the heart and as a whole, people are free by the rights regarding the practice of religion.
The constitution gives a good reflection of the understanding of the right to worship and the whole aspect of Christianity. Article 1 Section 7 of the constitution states, “If any Bill shall not be returned by the president within a span of ten days (excluding Sundays) after having been presented to him, the same shall be a law…” This is a clear evidence that the Bill of Rights regard not only Christian ethos but also reverend the day of worship and excludes it from the daily engagements of the government especially in signing Bills into laws (Harr et al., 2017). Therefore, the spirit of Christianity ethos inscribes in the Bill of rights as they show great respect to the day of worship.
Christianity and the Modern American Criminal Justice System
In understanding the American public life, the constitution gives evidence that Christianity holds a higher position and anything that is contrary the moral law is subject to punishment (Berry, 2017). Therefore, in civilized and Christian countries, practices such as bigamy and polygamy are classified as crimes, and consequently crimes in the law of the United States. The constitution was then created and amended in view of invoking and protecting the good of society. Punishment and legislation of acts that are inimical to the order, peace and morality of the society were therefore spelled in the constitution greatly from the Christian perspective, which largely guide society morals (Domingo and Witte, 2019).
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