National Day of Reason 2005 Speech
by Luke Setzer

Toastmasters Advanced Manual

Persuasive Speaking

Speech 3: The Winning Proposal

I would like to welcome all of you today to this important exchange of ideas regarding how best to foster a free and rational country. By a free and rational country, I mean one in which each of you can follow your own conscience -- your own reasoning -- without forcible interference by our government. I will outline a three step proposal to achieve this worthwhile goal.

1. Keep government out of religion
2. Keep religion out of government
3. Reduce the intrusive role of government in civil society

I will start with the easiest step first: Keep government out of religion!

For as long as human beings have walked this Earth, they have asked themselves some big questions like:

1. Is there any purpose to my life?
2. How can I know what is good and what is evil?
3. Are there any permanent truths?

Religion and philosophy have played central roles in answering these big questions and in giving people a sense of spiritual meaning and purpose. Religion has traditionally served as the moral compass and inner fire in human existence.

Unfortunately, religion has also offered a source of much conflict within human society. This long history of strife explains why the Founders of the United States, when they published their Declaration of Independence in 1776, wisely decided to incorporate the ideas of John Locke and other Enlightenment thinkers with the following passage:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The Founders carried the ideas of individualism even further in the U.S. Constitution, which has no mention of God, no religious test for holding office and a First Amendment declaring that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Thomas Jefferson clarified this clause in a letter to a religious minority in Connecticut in 1802 when he stated that the First Amendment built "a wall of separation between church and state."

In short, for much of our history, each resident of the United States has had the authority to decide for himself the answers to the big questions without forcible interference from either state or church.

This separation of church and state worked well while we had a very small and un-intrusive government dedicated only to defending its citizens against force and fraud via the courts, the armed forces and the police. The state left religions alone to flourish, to diversify and to prosper, and individuals had the liberty to change churches at their own discretion. Unfortunately, as so often happens, some religious persons opted to use the state to interfere with the religious choices of their fellow citizens.

This brings me to the second and more challenging step: Keep religion out of government!

Let me offer one powerful example: government schools.

The Irish Potato Famine of 1845 brought droves of Irish Catholics to American shores. Under the leadership of Horace Mann, Protestants decided to take it upon themselves to "save the children" from the Pope by institutionalizing compulsory state education, even though private education had proven its own effectiveness over the previous two centuries. This marked a turning point in American history and set the stage for de facto mixing of state and church via government schools.

Of course, the integrity of our Constitution doomed this attempt to use government schools to teach religious dogma. It took decades of efforts by organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Atheists to undo this mess and the task just never seems to end. We can point directly to the institutionalized state education in the middle of the 19th century as a primary catalyst in this mixing of church and state.

This brings me to the third and most challenging step: Reduce the intrusive role of government in civil society!

Most advocates of separation of church and state consistently support the idea that religion needs to remain a private choice. But those same advocates contend that education, welfare, health care and a whole range of other values that once remained private choices should, somehow, some way, not remain private choices! They oppose faith in God but not faith in government.

We all need to awaken from the slumber of forced government solutions and realize that freedom works! As I stand here and look at all the people in this room wearing free market clothing, eating free market food and preparing to head to their free market homes, I can say with total and complete confidence that individuals remain quite capable of making their own choices with respect to their spirits, their hearts, their minds and their bodies. We need not only a much smaller government confined to defending individuals from force and fraud, but also a level field of law that applies equally to both religious and secular institutions.

In conclusion, I encourage everyone here to implement the three steps to a more free and rational country:

1. Keep government out of religion
2. Keep religion out of government
3. Reduce the intrusive role of government in civil society

I look forward to working with all of you to make this happen.

Recommended Reading

1.     Coulson, Andrew. Market Education: The Unknown History (Studies in Social Philosophy & Policy, No. 21).
2.     Gatto, John Taylor. The Underground History of American Education.
3.     Richman, Sheldon. Separating School and State.

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