History Lesson

The First Amendment freedoms "are a gift from the Founders" who wrote the U.S. Constitution. -- Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fl.

   This is a fairly common refrain among American politicians, but it's not so. The Constitution does not grant any rights. Rather, it guarantees rights we already have. Rights that we all were born with. Or, as the Declaration of Independence puts it, "endowed by the Creator," whatever you perceive that Creator to be.
   This is not an endorsement of any particular religion or spiritual path, since the Constitution also specifies that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office." To make that point even stronger, the First Amendment notes that "Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
   It may well be that a majority of American citizens follow a religious or a spiritual path. But it's also true that many millions do not. As to which spiritual or religious path or organization any citizen may or may not follow, the only way of determining that is to ask, and the Census Bureau cannot do that, so it's up to the various organizations to gather data on their memberships, or for pollsters to survey the population.
   Moreover, organizations such as churches, synagogues and mosques keep their membership rolls in different ways. For some, a person born of members is counted as a member for the rest of his or her life, whether or not that person drops out, switches to another affiliation or becomes none of the above.
   Nevertheless, many political or church leaders persist in proclaiming that America is at root a religious nation, even though the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution specifically disavow and prohibit any rule that says otherwise.
   In addition, a peace treaty signed in 1796 emphasizes that the U.S. "is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." That treaty was unanimously ratified by the U.S. Senate on June 10, 1797.
   That document, the Treaty of Tripoli, put an end to the war with the Barbary pirates, with an original copy in Arabic.
   So perhaps a brief look at the Constitution and American history might help in settling the current  controversy over religious freedom and the demand that Muslims be kept out of America.
   They never have been, since many were brought here as slaves in the early years of the nation.
   And just to be fully clear, the full text of the relevant passage in the Treaty of Tripoli also notes that "no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of harmony" between Americans and Muslims.
   Here's the passage:
   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 (America) have never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan 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.

   Let's hear it for harmony between nations of differing spiritual or religious backgrounds.