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.”

I’m not a fan of this sentence.

Please don’t misunderstand me, here. I’m all for people having rights and life, liberty, all those things. I’m not even opposed to the “Creator” bit.

I just don’t like how badly this sentence has been misunderstood and manipulated throughout time. For the sake of brevity and focus, let’s narrow that manipulation down to the argument about this Creator and its role in our government.

“There’s no such thing as separation of church and state.”

That’s a pretty common argument I hear from religious folk. They say it doesn’t exist. The exact words aren’t there, so anything we interpret is faulty. And there are other arguments too. We’re a predominantly Christian nation, the founding fathers were Christian, etc.

Usually what’s going on is a fight over rights. Specifically, just what rights our government extends to its citizens.

Boy, was that ever the case on April 3, the day of the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling. Internet forums, word on the street, phone calls and press conferences. Many of them criticizing the Supreme Court’s decision for letting a “Christian nation” fall into immorality.

And unfortunately, it was that famous sentence from the Declaration of Independence that was manipulated the most. One comment from the Iowa State Daily’s Web site reads: “What ‘civil rights’ are you missing? Life? Liberty? PURSUIT of happiness? You can PURSUE happiness all you want, doesn’t mean you’ll get it.” Later, the commenter uses the sentence to proclaim, “‘Inalienable Rights’— not granted by government but by God.”

He says this despite the Constitution — arguably more important than the Declaration — and its First Amendment, which begins, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

Or, in other words, what the First Amendment is proclaiming is that civil law has nothing to do with religion. Not even civil rights have anything to do with God, and it’s unfortunate that people think they do. Let’s think about this for a second. Where do rights come from? For argument’s sake, let’s agree on God.

Well, why are only those three — Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness — listed? The line reads “among them,” so what are the other rights? And even if we knew them, those rights are the ones listed on the Declaration, not the Constitution, upon which our civil law is based. If we go to our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, we see no mention of a Creator or God anywhere, yet we do see a list of rights. So what about these rights? Do they come from God as well?

And, no offense, but I think God could’ve done better. Somehow I don’t picture God up in Heaven, handing down a glittering, gold-laced Bill of Rights to the founding fathers. “Here ya go,” God would have said with a grin that stretched from ear to holy ear. “Make sure you don’t let anyone take your guns away!”

And let’s not forget all the rights God apparently forgot about. Or left out. Or gave to other countries. Slavery, women’s right to vote, women’s equality, the right to a home, a right to healthcare… Are these all things that God just figured weren’t necessary for us? He’d rather throw some of these out to the Germans for example, who have 29 rights guaranteed by their government?

I don’t know about you, but all these questions, conflictions and contradictions are making my head spin. Maybe we ought to just look back and say, “Yeah, our country was founded on values that Judeo-Christians had. They aren’t unique to Judeo-Christians, but at least they had them. Our founding fathers were just people who tried to make their infant country a halfway decent place. Be good to others? This seems like pretty basic, general value I think I can support, God or no God.”

Or, to make that even simpler, what is God’s role in government?

Nothing.

 — Sophie Prell is a junior in pre-journalism and mass communication from Alta.