By Georgia Early
Imagine if our legislature endorsed one state religion funded by our taxes, and only members of that faith could vote. And those who practiced or proselytized a different version of that faith could not buy land, find employment or be guaranteed protection under the law. And the only schools available were either of that faith or private tutors for the wealthy.
This was the ethnographic culture in which our Constitutional Framers lived and the setting in which our Democratic Republic was forged. With exception of Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, each new world colony in the late 1700s had its own predominant church and each with various laws discriminating against those who would contradict “the norms.”
And for those reasons, the very first Constitutional Amendment addressed freedom from an established religion, and freedom of speech. It was not because it’s Framers were against religion. It was because they’d witnessed those discriminations, and even physical persecution, that had evolved from the integration of religious cultures into government.
They had seen this in Europe, and it took only 100 years for that take hold here in the new world. If there is any doubt about what our country’s Founding Fathers thought regarding the importance of keeping religion and government separate, one only has to read Madison’s “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments” written in 1785, and Thomas Jefferson’s “Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom” written in 1779 and enacted in 1786.
It’s also worth noting that Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 “letter to a Baptist association in Connecticut” was a response to a letter written by Baptist ministers expressing concerns about discriminations committed against them from those of other Christian religions. In those documents and more, our country’s Founding Fathers, many of whom were of various Christian faiths, Deists, and Humanists, clearly advocated for the personal practice of religious faiths, but had agreed not to integrate religion, with its potential cultural impacts, into the constitution.
So for Idaho and other states to integrate religious culture into government means that our country has just taken a U-turn back into the well-charted waters from which our Constitutional Framers had painstakingly exited.
But cultures are not relegated only to religion. The changes in our population, industry, technology and climate to name a few, have brought social issues to the political forefront. And as we’ve seen, when ideologies of either religion or social philosophies are forced onto others through governmental policies and laws, it fuels culture wars and division.
The Framers of our Constitution had agreed that its relevance in perpetuity would depend on its basic principle of unifying the country through fairness using reason, not philosophy or religion. Had they done so, it would’ve never been ratified since religious ideologies of the colonies were so diverse.
It’s important to note that the United States Constitution is the world’s longest surviving written charter of government. And if it’s to survive another 250 years we need to remember the reason for its longevity. If we don’t have the same priority as its Framers of unifying our country with fairness through reason, it will not.
So both liberals and conservatives need to back up and take a hard look at what each has done over decades and now to cause political partisanship. Perhaps we’ve forgotten the reasons that we have a government of, for and by the people. By electing leaders who forsake the very negotiating skills required to create it, listening to and working with each other, we surely won’t keep it. And for this, we are all to blame, either by sitting on the sidelines or encouraging our leaders to force our own cultural biases onto others whenever our own favored political parties win power.
And if we continue down this path, cultural chasms will inevitably result in irreparable corruption of the constitution itself, reflecting the agendas of well-funded ethnic, religious, or philosophical groups that empower politicians to continually chip away at the freedoms that we’ve long taken for granted.
So the question is do we want a government that represents whichever brand of religion or philosophy that can buy the most politicians during each election cycle? Do we even know who funds our leaders, and to what degree, when we go to the polls? Do we care about having a fair and impartial government under which we are free to live and believe as we choose, and for our leaders and ourselves to openly discuss issues and to disagree without fear of reprisal?
If we don’t stand for that now, we will be remembered as having failed our children and their children by allowing the continual dismantling of the freedoms that our Constitution has granted Americans for nearly two and a half centuries. So, we need to pay attention to laws being proposed and passed, attend town hall meetings, write or call our elected leaders, take part in initiative processes.
But most importantly, we need to exemplify our country’s Founding Fathers’ priority of unity through fairness in our own actions. That means to speak up, listen respectfully to others, and vote for leaders who’ll prioritize the unity of our country by negotiating using reason.
Side note: Proposed Bills relating to campaign finance:
Idaho H399 2025 – A major overhaul of Idaho’s campaign finance disclosure laws (referred to as “sunshine” laws).
Idaho RS32634 / H0398 2025– Increasing the frequency and transparency of finance disclosure laws for lobbyists.
The Idaho State Legislature website has contact info for members of congress, lists of committee members, etc.