Jefferson's church-state views debated

Christian Century, August 26, 1998

A major Library of Congress exhibit of more than 200 items examining the role of religion in early American life has sparked a new church-state debate even as it winds up its Washington stay and prepares to visit a number of major U.S. cities. On July 30 a group of two dozen church-state scholars released a joint letter criticizing a paper the Library of Congress released June 1 in connection with the exhibit. Titled "Religion and the Founding of the American Republic," the Library's paper portrayed Jefferson's position on church-state separation as political rather than principled.

Written by James Hutson, chief of the Library's manuscript division, the paper was based on a high-tech analysis of Jefferson's famed 1802 letter, included in the exhibit, to the Danbury, Connecticut, Baptist Association in which he used the metaphor of a "wall of separation" between church and state. The analysis of the letter was conducted by the FBI, which used its technology to restore words Jefferson had crossed out in drafting the letter. According to Hutson, the omissions suggest that the letter to the Danbury Baptists "was never conceived by Jefferson to be a statement of fundamental principles; it was meant to be a political manifesto, nothing more."

Hutson's paper was seized upon by the Christian Coalition to argue that it is "a liberal myth" that Jefferson intended his words "to be used as a justification for expelling religious expression from the public square." But the 24 scholars responding to Hutson's paper maintained that Hutson presented an "unbalanced treatment" of the topic. The scholars said there may be several possible explanations for Jefferson's crossing out of several words, but they do not provide a basis for Hutson's argument.

According to the scholars, "supporters of a broad understanding of Jefferson's Danbury letter have never denied the relevant and pertinent political considerations; however, that fact does not negate either the significance of this statement or his commitment to the principle." The response to Hutson was drafted by Robert M. O'Neill, professor of law at the University of Virginia, and Robert S. Alley, emeritus professor of humanities at the University of Richmond.

The Danbury letter is the centerpiece of the exhibit that will wrap up its Washington display on August 22 and then travel to Indianapolis, Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Richmond, Virginia. Hutson has also written a 136-page catalogue to accompany the show. While Jefferson's letter has provoked debate, other items, including a stained-glass window of the Founding Fathers bowed in prayer, testify to the significance of religion in public life. There are revival hymnals, etchings, psalm books, Bibles and other artifacts dating from the 17th to the late 19th century that bear witness to the highly visible role religious traditions played in creating American democracy.

At the same time, the exhibit includes startling illustrations of early American religionists disemboweling, hanging and roasting each other in the name of truth. The exhibit also highlights the little-known fact that religious services were held in federal buildings long after the Civil War. For example, during the 1860s the House of Representatives was also known as one of the most popular houses of worship. In its liturgical heyday the House attracted 2,000 people weekly to form the "largest Protestant Sabbath audience . . . in the United States," boasted then House Chaplain Charles Boynton.