PERSONAL CONSTITUTIONS

Much of what is wrong with American politics today is summarized in one lamentable fact: the constitution of a majority of Americans is not the American Constitution.

The Preamble to the United States Constitution states as follows:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Are Americans today interested in forming a more perfect union? It's hard to see how that could be. Conservatives decry liberals and liberals decry conservatives with such ferocity that it is not hard to imagine one group wishing the other to be completely obliterated from the face of this Nation, or at the very least, with no measurable voice in our government. Extremists on both sides of the political aisle vilify the beliefs of their opponents and demonize the leaders of opposing parties to such an extent that one could not possibly tell the difference between those leaders and pure evil. Given the vitriol in the current political climate, it's a wonder the U.S. isn't overflowing with one political assassination after another.

Article VI, Section III of the United States Constitution states, in pertinent part:

"…no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

How many times do you hear on the radio or read in the newspaper the opinion that American was founded on Judeo-Christian values and only Christians or Jews are qualified for public office?

Despite today's widespread belief to the contrary, America was intended by our founding fathers to function as a secular, non-religious Nation, based upon the premise that all individuals were free to practice the religion of their choice, or no religion for that matter, without having an individual's religious beliefs being a matter of public concern so far as the functioning of government was concerned.