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Michael Cianchette is a Navy reservist who served in Afghanistan. He is in-house counsel to a number of businesses in southern Maine and was a chief counsel to former Gov. Paul LePage.
He is Risen!
That phrase will be heard from many Mainers this Sunday. Christians of various faith traditions ( except Orthodox) are celebrating Easter.
The story of that most holy of Christian celebrations should — but doesn’t always — inform our politics. This principle often gets lost in the oversimplification that we have a “separation of church and state.”
The actual, applicable text of the First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The Maine Constitution’s analogue is even more verbose, beginning “all individuals have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences” and going on with numerous additional clauses.
Easter is a time to reflect on the intersection of politics and faith. After all, it was a government official — Pontius Pilate — that ordered the crucifixion of Jesus. The Roman historian Tacitus called the nascent religion a “pernicious superstition” when commenting on Nero’s crackdown against the earliest Christians.
Roman law did not enshrine the same freedoms expressed in the United States and Maine Constitutions when it came to individual faith. The personality cult surrounding emperors, including animal sacrifice, demanded what early Christians considered idolatry.
That held true until the Edict of Milan.
The details are complex, convoluted, and not perfectly clear. However, history has passed down one record alleged to contain the actual text. Supposedly, the emperors professed “to grant to Christians and to everybody the free power to follow the religion of their choice, in order that all that is divine in the heavens may be favorable and propitious towards all who are placed under our authority.”
The rhetorical rhyme between the Edict and our Constitutions is plain. Government would not interfere with the individual practice of religion and faith.
Yet the opposite does not necessarily follow.
Most religions, including Christianity, make certain claims about universal moral truths. That means an individual’s faith necessarily informs policymaking.
Some of it is pretty straightforward. The Mosaic commandment that “thou shall not murder” seems unobjectionable, despite its roots in the Jewish faith. An observant Jew or Christian advocating for the enshrinement of that principle in civil law, based on strongly held theological beliefs, is exactly what is protected by our constitutions.
That holds true even when the subject matter gets more complex and more contentious, like the Israel-Hamas conflict or immigration reform. Or, yes, abortion.
For those of us celebrating Easter this weekend, it is an opportunity to try to take in the lessons contained in the story of our faith. Some of them are hard.
How do the “good thief” and “bad thief” shape our thinking about softening criminal penalties for repeat offenders?
What is the appropriate distinction between voluntary, personal charity and tax-funded social programs organized by force of law?
When is the death penalty an appropriate punishment, given that Christ was unjustly condemned?
Heavy stuff.
The intersection of politics and faith is a complicated place, made all the more complex when private faith informs a position on public policy.
Yet the Maine Constitution promises “no person shall be hurt, molested or restrained in that person’s liberty or estate for worshiping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of that person’s own conscience, nor for that person’s religious professions or sentiments.”
So for those who celebrate this weekend, Happy Easter. And thanks to the Edict of Milan, the U.S. Constitution, and the Maine Constitution for encouraging people to live that faith openly.
