U.S. Constitution and the Bible

I have a deep respect and appreciation for the U.S. Constitution. Few if any countries have used the same defining document for such a long time. Except for the turmoil of the Civil War, the U.S. Constitution has guided this country through the peaceful transitions of government for two and a quarter centuries. This has held up even in times of great division, turmoil and distrust. The U.S. Constitution is remarkable for its brevity, especially when compared with the defining documents of other nations. That is clearly part of its genius. With only a couple of exceptions, the U.S. Constitution has not been used to address transitory issues but sets in place a mechanism for doing so. It has established stable, enduring institutions and processes, while at the same time remaining flexible and adaptable to changing conditions.

 

Having said that, the framers knew it was the imperfect work of imperfect people. From its original form through the years of amendments, the U.S. Constitution has been forged from difficult and sometimes distressing compromises. Perhaps the greatest of these is how it handled slavery that became fertile soil for the Civil War and perpetuated suffering on thousands and thousands of people for generations. The framers knew full well that the U.S. Constitution was not a finished product when they built in a difficult but achievable means of amending it. Its very adoption was dependent on passing the ten amendments of the Bill of Rights.

 

I believe the U.S. Constitution can and will serve the United States well for many generations to come. But I am also uncomfortable with how the U.S. Constitution is invoked in some of the most volatile political debates of our time. To suggest that it is frozen in the eighteenth century is a denial of both the insight of the framers and the realities of the twenty first century. I am even more concerned that this endues the U.S. Constitution with the qualities of inspiration, reliability and authority that, as a Christian, I can only ascribe to the Bible.

 

I can acknowledge God sovereignly working in the processes by which the framers developed the U.S. Constitution. However, that is a very long way from treating it as divine scripture. While some devout, orthodox Christians participated in framing the U.S. Constitution, Deists who overtly disavowed Christianity also had a strong influence. I am not objecting to their influence on the U.S. Constitution, but only objecting to trying to claim this document that does not mention God as somehow Christian.

 

In fact, I am convinced that we Christians and our churches are far better off and have a more vigorous faith when neither government nor social consensus supports a generic religion cloaked with Christian vocabulary. To say “I believe in God” or even “I believe in Christ” is far different than living in faith as a disciple of Jesus. To be satisfied with superficial religion, even with Christian symbols, is to dilute the demands of discipleship. What spiritual benefit is it to expect public officials to mouth religious platitudes which are at best marginal to them?

 

At the time I am writing this, this country is reeling from yet another gun massacre. At a time when we are and should be grieving, the demand to take action to prevent such tragedies in the future is pushing our national mourning to the edges with political posturing over gun laws.

 

This posturing is what has prompted my reflections on the U.S. Constitution. In my high school history and government classes and my college history and political science classes, the “right to keep and bear arms” clause of the Second Amendment was consistently taught as relating to the States keeping standing militias as protection from an armed invasion, especially by a tyrannical central government. While fear of big government is again fueling current political debates, I am not aware of anyone seriously proposing individual States waging an armed insurrection against the federal government. Public opinion and recent court decisions have interpreted the “right to keep and bear arms” clause of the U.S. Constitution as an individual right, and the incentive is the personal right to use deadly force for perceived self-defense.

 

While the interpretation of the clause seems to have evolved in my own lifetime, the “right to keep and bear arms” seems to have become fixed and inviolable by virtue of being in the U.S. Constitution. Yet the circumstances in the twenty first century are far different than they were in 1787 when the U.S. Constitution was adopted. The rationale has shifted from state militias to individual self-defense. Having recently come through the Revolutionary War with its single load rifles, the framers of the U.S. Constitution could never have imagined the powerful, repeating firearms we have today. . We have grown from a young nation along the Atlantic coast to become a major world power occupying the center of North America from coast to coast. We have gone from an agrarian society in which a gun was a survival tool for providing food as much as for protection (not necessarily from other people) to an urban society in which the density of population raises the risks and consequences of all violence dramatically. I’d like to think that if the founders could look over our shoulders and give us some advice, they’d tell us that there is sufficient flexibility in the Second Amendment to address the current issues that surround guns. They would probably also remind us that we have the power to amend the Constitution to cope with changing circumstances, though probably with a cautionary note about tampering with the Constitution to deal with a transitory issue.

 

Theologically, we Christians ought also to remind our society that neither the U.S. Constitution nor our other laws are Holy Scripture. God did not deliver them to Thomas Jefferson as the Ten Commandments were delivered to Moses as reported in Exodus. To be a nation of laws is good. We can be very thankful for the exemplary quality of our U.S. Constitution which protects our right to worship God and live as faithful disciples of Jesus. We Christians are also called to urge our society to use and modify its laws to maximize justice and peace in the circumstances of our own time.