Constitutionalist Church

We consider all persons who make a good faith commitment to constitutionalism to be members. That usually takes the form, in the United States, of taking an oath or affirmation to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic”. Citizens of other countries would take comparable oaths to their own national constitutions. We do, however, require that this be to the constitution as originally understood at the time it was ratified, and not as it may be wrongly construed in later times.

As a matter of law, the Constitution Society and its religious aspect, the Constitutionalist Church, is a church under IRC 508. That means donations to it are supposed to be deductible, but that it does not have to file reports or apply for a letter showing tax deductible status. Therefore, although we believe donations to be deductible, we do not promise that, and donors who choose to deduct do so at their own risk.

Is the United States an “establishment of religion”?

Given the definitions of constitutionalism, the question often arises of whether the United States itself is an “establishment” of the religion of constitutionalism. That would put it in conflict with its own First Amendment. Our position on that is that constitutionalism is a metareligion, that is, a religion about religions, and therefore not in competition with most traditional faiths. It is certainly appropriate for the U.S. government to support it as the “civic religion” recommended by the political philosophers Rousseau and Montesquieu, and the “political religion” discussed by Abraham Lincoln, without coming into conflict with the First Amendment, which was about various sects and their doctrines that are not in conflict with it.

But it is certainly possible for a religion to be in conflict with it. A sect that called for human sacrifice could advocate it as long as that didn’t constitute incitement to actually do it, but doing it would clearly be incompatible.

So from this we can say that in some sense, the United States and its people, so far as they abide by its Constitution, are members of the Church, and that the Church encompasses the nation. However, it also encompasses other constitutional republics.

Constitutionalism is the doctrine that the rules and practices of government and its officials must be held subject to superior laws called constitutions, from which all legal authority must derive by an unbroken logical chain.

There is a hierarchy of constitutions:

1. Constitution of Nature
2. Constitution of Society
3. Constitution of the State
4. Constitutions of Government

Each of these are subject to the one above it. There may be subsidiary constitutions of government for political subdivisions, and for private organizations.

It is also a faith that human beings have the ability, if they make the effort, to make constitutional government work. However, it also involves the duty to make that effort, alone and in concert with others.

The formal name of the Constitutionalist Church is the Constitution Society, which was founded April 1, 1994. It ministers to all those who are committed to the Rule of Law, which means compliance with a Supreme Law from which all ordinary laws must be derived. This Supreme Law forms a hierarchy:

• Constitution of Nature
• Constitution of Society
• Constitution of the State
• Constitution of Government

Each of threse constitutions are subject to the one above, so that if someone erroneously tries to assert a provision of any inconsistent with a constitution above, that provision is itself unconstitutional.

The first modern constitutions of government consistent with the superior constitutions of nature, society, and the state, were the constitutions of the several American states after they declared independence un 1776. The lessons learned in those were incorporated into  the Constitution for the United States, adopted in 1789, and since amended.

A principal tenet of the Constitutionalist Church is that law is a command issued by a lawgiving authority to those subject to it, and must be construed to mean what was meant by the lawgiver, to the extent that can be discovered.

As a religion constitutionalism embraces all other religions compatible with it, which broadly include all those which teach love, tolerance, and civic virtue. It is a metareligion, a religion about religions. It does not assert a name for a lawgiver for the Constitution of Nature. Every person is free to choose a name, or none. It does not assert an afterlife or ultimate justice beyond this world, but focuses on this life and justice in this world, and on faith in the basic goodness of humanity and possibility of working together to make this world a place where justice prevails.

We embrace as humanity all beings who share our values, anywhere in the Universe.

Join with us in our ministry. We have much work to do.