Woodfin – This week I have two opinion pieces for our readers. Both stem from the Town of Woodfin’s monthly meeting of what is now their town council. Here they are:
Rewriting the Town’s History
For the second time in two years, Woodfin’s main governing body has changed its name. For the full story, see the article on page 3, but for the short version, after being called aldermen for 49 years, the elected leaders of the town switched to a more gender-neutral title in February of 2020. There they became commissioners. At least that’s what everyone thought and what they’ve been called for the last two years.
But a bomb was dropped at their August meeting, where Town Manager Shannon Tuch told the commissioners that, according to the minutes of the town, they had actually become a town council and should be called councilmembers. So the titles have changed once more.
What’s in a name? Well, for me, I don’t care if they are called aldermen, alderwomen, councilmembers, or commissioners. What concerns me, especially as a reporter who has been covering the town for nearly 20 years, is what else has been discussed in the meetings that has somehow been changed in the minutes and has become the town’s official record but may not be what transpired in the meetings.
How has this happened? It’s a question I’d like answered, but it appears some of Woodfin’s official history has been rewritten.
Removing Town’s Traditions & Rewriting American History
When I started covering the Town of Woodfin back in 2003, the town opened all its meetings with an invocation. It varied from a local minister offering a prayer to a member of the council delivering the invocation. In the last year, and more specifically since the town got new council members, it moved to a moment of silence.
However, even the bland, non-religious moment of silence became intolerable to the ‘tolerant’ new board members at this month’s meeting, where the new board members voted 5-1 (Councilman Ronnie Lunsford being the only dissenting vote) to “explicitly prohibit invocation.” Isn’t it funny how the so-called “tolerant ones” are so intolerant?
It seems Councilmember Eric Edgerton, a lawyer by profession, was worried because the US Supreme Court this last session, in his view, has been tearing down the “wall of separation between church and state” which he has erected in his mind.
For those who don’t know, the phrase “separation of church and state” is not in the Constitution. It’s actually in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association. Then, two days after sending that letter, Jefferson himself attended “a church service conducted in the House of Representatives.” (billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/danburybaptists) Clearly, Jefferson did not believe the wall was built to keep the church from influencing and guiding the government, but to keep the government out of the church.
Further, Councilmember Jim McAllister declared, “In preparing for tonight, I did a little research. Some of them [the Founding Fathers] are very famous, were quoted at the time, saying “we’re not a Christian nation.”
Don’t tell that to John Adams, who sat on a committee in Congress in 1777 that recommended that Congress spend money on Bibles. In the report from the committee, they said, “that the use of the Bible is so universal, and its importance so great, that your committee refers the above to the consideration of Congress…your committee recommends that Congress will order the Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles from Holland, Scotland, or elsewhere, into the different ports of the states in the Union:” Congress was moved to “order the Committee of Commerce to import twenty thousand copies of the Bible.” (christianheritagefellowship.com/congress-purchases-and-endorses-the-bible/).
Is there another religious group besides Christians that uses the Bible as their holy text?
“On February 29, 1892, the Supreme Court declared (in Holy Trinity v. United States) that the historical record of America overwhelmingly demonstrated that the United States ‘… is a Christian nation.'”
Britannica.com says, “Whatever their beliefs, the Founders came from similar religious backgrounds. Most were Protestants. The largest number were raised in the three largest Christian traditions of colonial America—Anglicanism (as in the cases of John Jay, George Washington, and Edward Rutledge), Presbyterianism (as in the cases of Richard Stockton and the Rev. John Witherspoon), and Congregationalism (as in the cases of John Adams and Samuel Adams). Other Protestant groups included the Society of Friends (Quakers), the Lutherans, and the Dutch Reformed. Three of the Founders—Charles Carroll and Daniel Carroll of Maryland, and Thomas Fitzsimmons of Pennsylvania—were of Roman Catholic heritage.
“The sweeping disagreement over the religious faiths of the Founders arises from a question of discrepancy. Did their private beliefs differ from the orthodox teachings of their churches? On the surface, most of the Founders appear to have been orthodox (or “right-believing”) Christians. Most were baptized, listed on church rolls, married to practicing Christians, and frequent or at least sporadic attenders of services of Christian worship. In public statements, most invoked divine assistance.”
Councilman McAllister, you might try digging deep into your research because I’ve just scratched the surface of the true history of the Founders.
According to chaplin.house.gov, “The election of the Rev. William Linn as Chaplain of the House on May 1, 1789, continued the tradition established by the Continental Congresses of each day’s proceedings opening with a prayer by a chaplain. The early chaplains alternated duties with their Senate counterparts on a weekly basis. The two conducted Sunday services for the Washington community in the House Chamber every other week.”
It goes on to say that these chaplains were overwhelmingly of the Christian faith, “Since the election of Rev. Linn in 1789, the House has been served by chaplains of various religious denominations, including Baptist (7), Christian (1), Congregationalist (3), Disciples of Christ (1), Episcopalian (4), Lutheran (1), Methodist (16), Presbyterian (15), Roman Catholic (2), Unitarian (2), and Universalist (1).” The practice even continues into the current “woke” generation.
At least we know the Founding Fathers were tolerant of faith playing an active role in government, unlike the intolerant members of the Town of Woodfin’s council.
Editor’s note: The Tribune Papers has invited Woodfin Councilman Jim McAllister to respond to this commentary.