Days of Prayer and Reason
In his proclamation for the National Day of Prayer, President Trump expressed the view that it has been faith that “guided our ancestors across turbulent waters, inspired our Founding Fathers to put in writing those immortal words, ‘All men are created equal’”, and “freed our Nation from the clutches of tyranny nearly 250 years ago.”
The problem, of course, is that this is not entirely accurate. In fact, it’s very far from accurate.
While it is the case that many English non-conformists were among the first white settlers in North America, history reveals a complex set of religious, economic, political, and social reasons for that migration. Early colonial governments in Massachusetts did not generally reflect a commitment to religious tolerance, and the destruction of this continent’s indigenous populations, along with our reprehensible history of African enslavement, reveal a founding framework rooted in violence and in a freedom reserved for a select few.
The identification of God (and specifically the Christian view of God) as the founding principle of American democracy is not new. While our subscription to this mythological origin has wavered throughout our nation’s history, it has re-emerged as a defining feature of the now burgeoning Christian Nationalist movement, a movement far removed from scripture but firmly ensconced in our halls of power.
It is tempting, then, to pin the blame for this on religion writ large.
But that too would be disingenuous.
Not to be outdone, we now have a National Day of Reason, the implication being that without the Enlightenment (and reason, vaguely described) we wouldn’t have the country we have today.
Like all things, the genealogy of an idea reveals a more complex story. While it is true that the ideals of the Enlightenment were the primary influence on the formation of our constitution and government, the philosophy of the Enlightenment begins with René Descartes, a thinker whose aim (broadly speaking) was to establish methods for scientific inquiry without undermining one’s faith commitments.
Like Descartes, Newton, Kant, Locke, and many others carved out philosophical systems that opened new avenues of intellectual pursuit while maintaining commitments (to varying degrees) of religious belief and practice.
Conceptually speaking, reason is also not without its own problems. If it is true that the U.S. Constitution contains no mention of God and has as its bedrock the principles of the Enlightenment, then something like the three-fifths compromise belongs squarely in the camp of reason, not religion. And since, as a matter of faith, all people are fully created in the image of God, then something like the three fifths compromise is anti-thetical to the very core of religious belief.
Reality, of course, is nuanced. Religious people have been at the heart of our very worst moments and at the center of our very best moments. This applies equally to all Americans, regardless of whether they practice a view of faith or not.
This is a long-winded way of saying a very simple thing: being prayerful and having a commitment to reason, broadly described, are not mutually exclusive. A day of reason and a day of prayer aren’t necessary, if properly understood.
People of faith are certainly free to pray as they see fit – in school, at a restaurant, or in church. What we are not allowed to do is to require or sanction prayer as if it were an essential part of American life.
Likewise, reason, if left unattended, does not naturally lead to moral clarity or consistent thinking. The sins of the Enlightenment are in plain sight.
Perhaps one path forward is to understand that each of us is a tangled web of intersectional and, at times, conflicting priorities. Pulling on one thread too far, or emphasizing another too much, reduces us to simplistic binaries that rob us of meaning.
For my part, I’ll continue to pray, to reason, to work towards kindness, acceptance, and accountability, hoping for a day when we can finally move beyond the false binaries that define so much of American life today.
