Latest news with #EnglishRevolution
Los Angeles Times
04-08-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
America's best idea is under fierce attack
The 1st Amendment, and the separation of church and state, America's best idea, is at risk as never before. The notion that church and state should be discrete entities was unprecedented when the founders decided to embark on what one historian has called the 'lively experiment' of disestablishment. The founders were well aware of the Wars of Religion and the English Revolution, conflicts largely over religious differences. In addition, as the founders surveyed the religious diversity in the colonies — from Puritans and Baptists in New England to Quakers, Jews, Dutch Reformed Protestants and Presbyterians in the Middle Colonies to more Baptists in the South and Anglicans, Catholics and even Muslims throughout — they realized that designating any one faith or denomination as the American religion would be contentious. So the founders chose the road not traveled. The 1st Amendment, drafted by James Madison and ratified in 1791, said 'Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion' while guaranteeing free exercise for all. Another way to understand this unique configuration is economic. As Adam Smith predicted in his 1776 brief for free-market capitalism, 'The Wealth of Nations,' religion will thrive if the government refuses to intervene or favor one faith over another. American history has more than vindicated Smith's prediction. Religion has flourished in the United States as nowhere else precisely because the government has stayed out of the religion business. But the corollary is also true. Religious factionalism has not impeded the functions of government. In other words, the 1st Amendment has worked remarkably well. As Thomas Jefferson noted in 1808: 'We have solved, by fair experiment, the great & interesting question Whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government, and obedience to the laws[.] & we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely & openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason, & the serious convictions of his own inquiries.' Others noticed as well. 'Half the wars of Europe, half the internal troubles that have vexed European states,' James Bryce, an Oxford University historian, observed in 1893, 'have arisen from theological differences or from the rival claims of church and state. This whole vast chapter of debate and strife has remained virtually unopened in the United States.' The United States has survived numerous attempts to jettison the 1st Amendment. During the Civil War, an organization called the National Reform Assn. sought to amend the Constitution with a revised preamble: 'We, the people of the United States, humbly acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Ruler among the nations, His revealed will as the supreme law of the land, in order to constitute a Christian government, and in order to form a more perfect union… .' The group took its proposal all the way to the White House, where Abraham Lincoln wisely temporized, averring that 'the work of amending the Constitution should not be done hastily.' Other attempts include those proposed by the Christian Amendment Assn., which emerged during the Cold War. Members of Congress failed to pass that amendment, but they did add 'under God' to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 and replaced E pluribus unum ('out of many, one') with 'One Nation Under God' as the national motto in 1956. More recent attempts to eviscerate the wall of separation between church and state have focused not so much on constitutional amendments as on incremental attacks by way of legislation, with the collusion of the judiciary. The posting of the Ten Commandments in public schoolrooms in Louisiana and Texas and, more important, the use of taxpayer money for religious education represent clear violations of the establishment clause of the 1st Amendment. Ever since the 19th century, using public money for religious education was a bright line separating church and state. The so-called Blaine amendments, named for James Blaine, speaker of the House of Representatives, senator, secretary of State and Republican nominee for president in 1884, were adopted by 37 states. The amendments originated in anti-Catholic fervor, but their prohibition of public support for religious schools was constitutionally axiomatic for nearly a century. That seems quaint now, as red states rush to dole out taxpayer-funded vouchers so parents can send their children to religious schools at public expense. Sadly, Donald Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' provides tax-credit funding for religious education, and the majority on the Supreme Court is complicit in efforts to undermine the separation of church and state. If only the Supreme Court had half as much deference for the 1st Amendment as it does for the 2nd Amendment, we'd be in much better shape. As Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote in her final Supreme Court opinion on church-state matters, 'Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: Why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?' Randall Balmer, one of the expert witnesses in the Alabama Ten Commandments case, teaches at Dartmouth College. His latest book, 'America's Best Idea: The Separation of Church and State,' will be released Aug. 5.
The National
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
New exhibition considers the life of King James VI & I
Some consider his 58-year reign to be less historically significant than the lives of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and his son, King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland. The execution of Mary in 1587 was a key moment in Europe's religious conflict, while the regicide of Charles in 1649 marked the dramatic victory of the English Revolution. Other people would place the emphasis on James's fanatical obsession with witches and witchcraft, which led to the gruesome executions of more than 2500 people (the overwhelming majority of them women) in Scotland alone. Then there is James, the gay icon, known for his intimacy with a number of young, attractive male favourites. READ MORE: Thousands of people turn out to pro-independence march in Wales Whatever aspect of James's life one considers to be most significant, one thing that is certain is that his accession to the English throne in 1603 set in train a political process that would lead, ultimately, to the formation of the British state in 1707. All of these aspects of James's life and reign – and others besides – are subjects of the fascinating new exhibition The World Of King James VI & I at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. The show boasts a rich and diverse series of paintings, drawings, artefacts, books and letters which cast a compelling light on James's life and times. The exhibition includes – as one would expect – a number of portraits of James, including a 1606 painting attributed to the Flemish artist John de Critz. This full-length portrait – in which the king leans nonchalantly against a piece of furniture while wearing a bejewelled black hat – testifies to James's love of fine clothes and jewellery. Perhaps the most interesting portrait of James – who acceded to the throne of Scotland at the tender age of 13 months – is the painting of him as a young boy kneeling at the memorial to his father, Lord Darnley, who was murdered when James was still an infant. Painted by another Flemish artist, Livinus de Vogelaare, it shows James as a very young boy, with a miniature crown on his head. The child cuts an isolated figure. His mother was in exile, his father dead, and he had no siblings. The Vogelaare picture depicts the power James will obtain when he comes of age, but it portrays, too, a child alone in the world, save for the courtiers who raised him. The show is understandably circumspect on the question of James's sexual orientation, about which there has been considerable speculation for more than 500 years. However, it does display intriguing artworks and items pertaining to the king's favourites. Arguably, the finest painting in the exhibition is that of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, by the great Flemish Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens. A beautifully executed portrait of a young man who is widely believed to have been one of James's lovers, the picture captures not only Villiers's unquestionably good looks, but also, somehow, his reputed charm and charisma. Following the death of Elizabeth I of England and his accession to the English throne, James would become the human embodiment of a developing union between Scotland and England. One fascinating artwork – from the surprisingly early point of 1604 – depicts a series of six proposals for the flag of the nascent United Kingdom, five of which place the Scottish St Andrew's cross in a secondary position to the English cross of St George. Curator Kate Anderson and her team have brought into the show aspects of James's times that – whilst very important – would surely have been overlooked in the past. One particularly significant subject is early European colonialism. READ MORE: John Swinney 'moved' as he meets with Northern Ireland FM at Pope Francis funeral We know from Shakespeare's final play The Tempest – which was written in 1610-11, during James reign in England – that European colonialism was already well under way. In the play, the Italian nobleman and sorcerer Prospero subjugates the native islander Caliban, whom he depicts, not as a human, but a monster. Two artworks in the show portray the complexity of the racist conception of the First Nations people of North America as an exotic 'other' by European colonialists. In one picture, we see the famous Native American writer Pocahontas, who has converted (forcibly or otherwise) to Christianity, is wearing Western garb and has married English tobacco plantation owner John Rolfe. In another spine-chilling and outrageous image, we see the Native American man Eiakintomino displayed – as an objectified, incarcerated human exhibit – in the zoo at St James's Park in London alongside animals and birds. Elsewhere in the exhibition, there are paintings of Mary, Queen of Scots, including a fictitious double portrait from the 1580s of Mary and her son, James VI. The painting is based upon existing portraits of the two, who could not have sat together at that time as Mary was imprisoned in England. There are depictions, too, of James's queen, Anne of Denmark. Objects in the show include coins from the period and a beautiful embroidered women's bodice, which was typical of the clothes worn in James's English court. For those who enjoy interactive elements in gallery exhibitions, there are numerous places in the show where one can scan a QR code to hear audio material. Indeed, at one impressive point, you can pass your smartphone over monochrome drawings of the grand wooden archways that were erected for James's London coronation and see them transformed into colour. Typically of the National Galleries of Scotland, this is a brilliantly put together exhibition, and one that offers superb, sometimes startling, insights into the life and times of the pivotal monarch in the development of the British state. The World Of King James VI & I is at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh until September 14:
