Commissioner Sean Swope’s recent commentary claims America was “conceived in the pulpit.” The founders’ record says otherwise.
They built a government restrained by law, one that protects every citizen’s right to believe or not believe. The First Amendment draws a clear line: Congress makes no law establishing religion. Jefferson called it a wall of separation between church and state — a safeguard that keeps faith free and government accountable.
The Supreme Court has upheld that principle for more than 75 years. In Everson v. Board of Education and Engel v. Vitale, the court made clear that government neutrality toward religion protects everyone. Neutrality doesn’t suppress faith; it preserves its independence from political power.
The Constitution never mentions God. The 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, signed by President John Adams and ratified unanimously, affirms that the United States “is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” Adams and Jefferson valued faith as a personal moral compass, not a tool of the state.
A government that preaches one belief automatically sidelines others. Freedom erodes when elected officials use their platform to push a single theology or to claim divine authority for public policy. Every citizen’s conscience deserves equal standing under the law.
Public office comes with an oath to the Constitution. That oath demands restraint. It requires leaders to serve people of all faiths and none, without turning the machinery of government into a pulpit.
America’s strength lies in that restraint — the discipline to let people govern themselves, guided by their own beliefs, not by someone else’s sermon.
Matt Evans
Centralia
