Re: Removing ‘God’ from the preamble to the
Constitution of T&T:
“The People of Trinidad and Tobago have affirmed that the Nation
is founded upon principles that acknowledge the Supremacy of God and Faith in
fundamental Human Rights.”
The debate over whether or not to remove ‘God’
from the Constitution is at best a fruitless exercise. Words are being
sharpened like swords on both sides of the battlefield where the Secular Humanists
claim we need to remove all reference to God in order to become a developed
society while the Religious Conservatives fear the wrath of God and the
curtailing of their religious freedoms.
Legislative
changes, constitutional amendments and Judicial Activism (Roe v Wade, Brown v Board of Education) are what create and protect
Human Rights and democracies, not the removal of ‘God’ and an attempt to create
a purely secular constitution when there is no danger of inter-religious
conflict within our rainbow country.
Section 4 of
the Constitution already protects adequately Freedom of Conscience and
Religious Belief; Freedom of Thought and Expression; and provides that all religious and non-religious persons have the right to equality
before the law.
The Presence
of ‘God’ in the Constitution does not preclude a state from becoming a Liberal
Democracy with strong respect for Human Rights as amply evidenced by the
flourishing democracies of Canada, Germany, Switzerland and many others. The
preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms reads as follows:
“…Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the
supremacy of God and the rule of law.”
Canada has legalized gay marriage and
Switzerland and Germany both recognize LGBT civil unions as legal. All three
nations are listed in the top 11 in the world by the UNDP Human
Development index, [HDI, 2012].
The absence
of ‘God’ in the Constitution does not necessarily make a state a liberal utopia
where human dignity and rights are treasured.
The Constitutions of China and North Korea have no real reference to God
and both nations have a long history of grievous Human Rights abuses. North Korea in particular has been alleged to
force political dissidents into slave labor and prostitution.
The very
concepts upon which Human Rights and Law are based are derived from religious
principles. The 1948 UN Declaration of the Rights of Man, Article 1 and the
Preamble to the 1948 Declaration firmly ground Human Rights in Equality and the
dignity of the Human person, seeing these principles as the foundations of
Justice and Peace. Furthermore, the equality of men before God is a fundamental
principle of many religions:
Galatians 3:28 - “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Any scholar
of ancient history, myth or religion will know that many ancient peoples claim
to get their Law directly from God. Apart from Moses receiving the Torah from
Adonai , The Babylonian code of Hammurabi was said to be given by the sun god
Shamash. The Egyptians personified law and justice as the goddess Ma ’at and the
Romans personified law and justice as the goddess Justitia.
In light of
the above, one will judiciously surmise that removing ‘God’ from the
Constitution will not only be pointless if the aim is to protect Democracy and
Human Rights, but it will also go against the history of the Law itself.
