What Does This Yard Sign Mean?
And why is this candidate running for the School Board?
I’ve been puzzled by a local campaign sign that pairs religion with politics.
Truth has taken a beating since 2015, but I keep trying to accept at face value what people say. So when I look at Chris’ yard sign I wonder, what sleight of mind has put “Christian” together with “Constitutional”?
In 1791 the First Amendment to the Constitution “forbade Congress to make any law ‘respecting an establishment of religion’.”
What was the thinking behind this Establishment Clause? The Library of Congress says,
Many delegates believed it would be politically controversial to introduce religion into the Constitution. The only ‘religious clause’ in the document, in Article Six, banned religious tests as qualification for federal office in order to avoid claims of religious discrimination.
The founding fathers did not want a relationship between the government and a single religion because they and our first British settlers were only too aware of religious persecution in England.
Our first few Presidents supported religion for its moral guidance, but in a general way. The Constitution is a national document for citizens of all faiths.
So I’m confused by the language on the yard sign, “Christian Constitutional”. Did Chris mean to say Christian Nationalist? They believe that the United States was established as an explicitly Christian nation and needs to be restored to that status.
But I should give Chris credit for saying what he means. “Nationalist” is not written on his yard sign, so I must be way off track.
Let’s look at the second point the Library of Congress makes about the Constitutional delegates:
[They] were committed federalists, who believed that the power to legislate on religion, if it existed at all, lay within the domain of the state, not the national, governments.
Now it’s making sense. Our local School Board candidate is not a nationalist at all. I think he might be for the right of a state to declare an official religion. In 2013 North Carolina House Republicans actually proposed this as a Resolution, on the basis that
each state in the union is sovereign and may independently determine how that state may make laws respecting an establishment of religion.
But, Chris, the NC State Constitution says that federal law rules over state law.
Article 1, Section 5 of the North Carolina Constitution requires the state to observe federal law: ‘Every citizen of this State owes paramount allegiance to the Constitution and government of the United States, and no law or ordinance of the State in contravention or subversion thereof can have any binding force.’
Did I mention that Chris also claims to be a member of the Convention of States? They want to limit the power of the Federal Government!
It’s been a wild ride, but it’s all coming together now.
Still, what’s he doing running for the School Board?
Excellent explanation!
👍👍👍!!!