Lecture Series: Prof. Kathleen Moore (December 3, 2011)

Professor Kathleen Moore of University of California, Santa Barbara addressed the American Constitutional Interpretation for the 21st Century. Prof. Moore said that there has always been a heated relationship between religion and politics in the United States. 54% of Americans believe that religion should not play any role in politics. That still leaves 46% of Americans who believe that religion should influence politics.

Historically there has been a religious idea of America. The Protestant image of American is that of Ancient Israel and as the Kingdom of God. When the Puritans migrated to America they moved with the intention of setting of God’s Kingdom in the New World. Their mission was to colonize, Chistianize, and civilize.

Kennedy and Reagan both made references to this image of America as the city upon a hill. Keeping in mind the 90% of Americans believe in a God and 60% of Americans say religion plays an important part in their lives, this reference made by both presidents on different ends of the political spectrum makes sense.

The American founders created a neutrality towards religion in the interest of national unity. There was a legal secularist movement in the United States in the 1970s. This was the period in which liberals made many strides including Roe v. Wade. Now the Christian right is trying to undo these successes of the liberal left. America was founded on the ideal that the people are sovereign. This ideal upended the traditional held belief that one man or woman was sovereign and that one sovereign’s religion was the religion of the land. With the people are sovereign ideal, their myriad of religious beliefs become sovereign and thus the best way for the state was to establish a neutrality towards religion.