Religion in the Senate

I suppose that I should have known that it existed- a chaplain- Barry Black in the United States Senate. But I found it both surprising and disturbing. One clear dictate of the founding fathers was to separate Church and State. The whole gang of leaders who rebelled against England were Deists at least in name. But they were more a product of the enlightenment.

The early settlers were Pilgrims and so on were mostly Presbyterians, part of the crew who chopped off the head of Charles I. Many of this gang of criminals was kicked out of England at the time of the Restoration. Whether their philosophy, as Max Weber theorizes, was responsible for the rise of Capitalism, I do not know. I always liked the theory. But this was not the group (for the most part who founded this country).

Although the theists of the day apparently believed in God and went to a community church, their God was remote. These men had seen the damage of the wars of religion in Europe and wisely chose to make this distinction. Of course by now the enlightened leaders are long gone from the Senate and a strange kind of Christianity holds sway.

This cleric prays over the Senate every day, asking God for guidance. In his interview he spoke about often speaking to Senators. Senators actually say to him, "Pastor, I really don't know how to vote on this particular issue. Could you give me some guidance?" I think it is outrageous.

Of course, if you think that this is really a Christian country, and that some kind of Protestant Christianity should lead the thinking of our leaders, then things are as they should be. But I expect that Washington, Adams and Jefferson respectfully disagree.

Well, I've done a little checking and the first chaplain of the Senate was elected in 1789. From then till now there have been Christians chaplains of various denominations. There have been no Mormons, Buddhist, Jewish or Muslim chaplains. So my next research project is to find out exactly what Washington, Adams and Jefferson thought about this appointment. And the search goes on.

History shows the three people that I have mentioned in the way I have written- as almost completely sectarian. They only say that George Washington was private about his religion. Jefferson was almost anti-organized religion and Adams notably secular. But there must have been some tradition in English of appointing a religious "provost" to enhance the legitimacy of the body. There were a large number of Calvinists in the early colonies, a notably fundamentalist sect.