First Things posts the preambles to state constitutions in the U.S.

Michael Novak and Ashley Morrow write:

The first amendment prohibited the federal government from making any laws "respecting" the establishment of religion (either for it or against it). Its intent was not to derogate from religion, but to signal its intense importance to the American people. Over the next 175 years or so, as new states entered the Union, the people of all but one of the states (Oregon) took care to give their belief in God prominence of place in the preambles of their state constitutions. Many of the preambles seem almost like opening prayers set before the text of the constitution of a free republic. They "invoke," "recall," "acknowledge with gratitude," and express "reverence." The reason for this appears to be that most Americans believe that liberty is a gift of God, and therefore that their opportunity to erect a republic is also a gift of God.

See the article here for the text of all the applicable preambles.

Filed under: Observations

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