The Religious Right and their Capitol Crime

In his article, Capitol Crime, Rob Boston criticizes the Religious Right for protesting the new CVC building in Washington D.C. This newly constructed museum, called the Capitol Visitor Center, was created to display the history of Capitol Hill and ease the traffic of tourists who visit every day. It took seven years and cost $621 million to construct this facility and despite these efforts, the Religious Right pursued measures to change parts of the museum because it lacked religious symbols that paid homage to America’s “Christian heritage.” Claiming that the CVC is a “godless pit” and a “shrine to secularism,” they are angered by even the smallest details. These individuals clearly believe that the U.S. serves a divine purpose and they claim that by restricting the implementation of some of our nation’s Christian traditions, we are denying this country’s true Christian history. Boston states that this was the “latest episode in a long running campaign to convince people that America was founded to be an officially Christian nation.” To uphold their views, the Right even stated that George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson would have agreed with them, which we all know is incorrect—especially concerning James Madison, one of the strictest separationists of the Founding generation.

But are the claims of the Religious Right true? Are they right in claiming that the CVC ignores all of our country’s Christian traditions? Staffers from Americans United (a separationist organization) say it ain’t so. They noted that despite all of the Religious Right’s complaints, there are indeed symbols of Christianity inside the museum. For example, there is a display that clearly reads “In God We Trust” on a video screen, an exhibit that discusses congressional chaplains, and even a large King James Bible on display which was given to congressional stenographers during the 1930s. If these aren’t blatant symbols of Christianity, I don’t know what is.

In my opinion, the Religious Right’s argument just doesn’t hold water. As a group, they seem to disregard the first amendment altogether—forgetting that our founding fathers wrote the first amendment with the intention of preventing the government from “establishing or promoting” a specific religion. The CVC building was not built to promote the Christian religion—it was built to provide an elaborate “civics lesson” as James Billington of the Library of Congress puts it. These exhibits are used to explain the formation of Congress and its role in politics. The last quote of the article sums up the purpose of the CVC facility quite nicely by stating:
“If the Religious Right has its way, the Capitol Visitor Center will lose an important opportunity to educate Americans about our nation’s history and the true origins of our government,” Lynn said. “Congress should ignore the Religious Right and make certain the Center accurately reflects history and is welcoming to all Americans.”

Our nation is not discriminatory. By including more Christian symbolism in a facility dedicated to the secular formation of government, the CVC would become exclusionary and fail to attract visitors of all backgrounds, cultures, and religious beliefs. If the Religious Right want a museum that solely displays Christianity in American politics, they should garner $621 million and build a historical sanctuary of their own design, supported by the Church. They simply cannot push forth changes on a secular facility in a country built on the principle of the separation of church and state.