The Common Good and Common Ground

    


Since I have always admired the wisdom of our Founding Fathers' insistence on the separation of church and state in the US Constitution, I am somewhat dismayed that many who claim to honor the Constitution are also the ones who are willing to blur the line between church and state.

 In the current GOP presidential campaign, some candidates are essentially equating being a true American with being a true Christian. Such a position, I submit,  is un-American. In addition, two of the presidential candidates who are Mormon are being questioned because of their religion. In Minnesota a politician is being condemned because he took the oath of office with his hand on the Quran (in fact, Thomas Jefferson's Quran). Where will this nonsense end? Are some Christians going to demand that an elected official must take the oath of office on the King James Bible and not a newer translation ? Are we going to eliminate from our armed forces all Muslims, Jews, and atheists? If Christianity had been the litmus test of serving our country, some of our Founding Fathers would not have been able to serve since they were in fact deists.


Unfortunately, contrary to the Constitution and the wishes of the Founding Fathers, some of our fellow Americans seem intent on creating a Christian theocracy. Perhaps they envision a modern Christian crusade in which an American Christian theocracy attacks a Muslim Iranian theocracy? A return to the Middle Ages with modern weapons? Such insanity is perhaps what our Founding Fathers foresaw and wished to avoid when they drafted the Constitution.


On the other hand, almost all religions agree on some basic principles, and I think it is quite right that elected leaders espouse these principles without breaching the wall of separation of church and state. And these principles are quite simple:


1) tell the truth
2) face the facts
3) listen,specially to a differing opinion
4) help others and do no injury
5) mind your own business and stay out of your neighbor's business
6) act in the interest of the common good 
7) play fair and accept responsibility for your actions
8) share your blessings
9) do not pull your neighbor down as it does not raise you
10) do not interrupt


Since  almost everyone can agree with.simple principles such as these, we all share this common ground which is above and beyond our differing religious affiliations. Why don't we emphasize this common ground  and work together for the common good? After all, the first sentence of the Constitution says, we the people are founding a new country to "promote the general Welfare...."


In fact, what better common ground is there than the Constitution of the United States?