Charles Shiflett Column May 16, 2004

This Nation Needs An Old Dictionary

It's 1776 and you say to a fellow church member, “that new coat of yours looks really cool.” The man
gives you a funny look and then walks away with hurt feelings. You've just insinuated that his coat is
so flimsy and poorly made that it couldn't keep him warm. Words have meanings - and in 1776, “cool”
didn't mean stylish.

Likewise if you had referred to a woman as a “fox” she would have been insulted, thinking you were
calling her an animal or worse. And in 1776, I believe that “hip” referred to a body part.

Many of us grew up with the King James Bible and sometimes struggled with an Old English lexicon
very different from the American English we were accustomed to. Scholars creating new modern
language versions of the Bible struggle to maintain the correct meanings of words and passages as
they are translated. Original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic manuscripts are analyzed and words are
painstakingly compared. One mistranslated word or misplaced punctuation mark can drastically
change the meaning of an entire passage.

To correctly understand and interpret our U.S. Constitution today, we need to understand the
meanings of words as used by our founding fathers in the 1700's. We also have to look at the world
through their eyes and envision what they saw - for even if the dictionary definition of a word hasn't
changed, the use of that word may still imply a completely different meaning than we would expect
today.

In 1776, the population of the original thirteen colonies was of predominantly British origin - English,
Irish, Scottish. Throw in a few French, Germans, Dutch, and Swiss for good measure. Though not all
attended Church or practiced their faith, one historical source estimates over 95% of the population in
1776 considered themselves Protestant Christians, with the rest consisting of Jews and Catholics.
Diversity in their eyes consisted of white English speaking Protestant Europeans.

Unless accompanied by conquering armies or sold into slavery, people of that time period tended to
stay near their own kind. The Chinese stayed in China, the Russians stayed in Russia, the Arabs
stayed in Arabia. Our founding fathers probably envisioned the United States would always be a
predominantly English speaking Protestant Christian nation and our Constitution was written reflecting
that worldview - a common language and a common culture. They expected those who would later
immigrate to our shores to adopt our cultural standards and be fully assimilated into our society.

Our friends with the ACLU and People For The American Way are quick to shout “Separation of
Church and State!” Yet that phrase does not appear either in the Declaration of Independence or the
Constitution. Let's remember the majority of our immigrants prior to 1776 came here to escape either
the Catholic Church's persecution of Christians who refused to wear the mantle of servitude to Rome,
or they were fleeing the oppressive Church of England. Our founding documents were written for a
Christian nation. They just wanted to insure there would be no national church or denomination.

Want proof? Read the Declaration of Independence and Constitution and note the words God, Creator,
and Nature. A little research will yield definitions from that time period drastically different from today's
commercially available dictionaries.

Definition of “God” then: “The Supreme Being; Jehovah, the eternal and infinite spirit, the Creator, and
the Sovereign of the Universe.” The word “God” now: “A being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent,
omniscient originator and the ruler of the universe, the principal object of faith and worship in
monotheistic religions.”

Let's also look at the definition of “Nature” then: “In a general sense whatever is made or produced; a
word that comprehends all of the works of God.” The word “Nature” now: “The material world and its
phenomena.”

In short, our founding fathers wrote and signed documents which they clearly understood and which
clearly expressed a belief in Christianity. Their use of the words “God” or “Creator” referred to Jehovah
or Yahweh, the God of the Old and New Testaments - not Buddha, Allah, Confucius, or the natural
world. At the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, some colonies actually had
constitutions allowing only Christians the right to vote. Many of the writings by the founders during that
time referred to the Scriptures - the King James Christian Bible, not the Koran.

America has drifted too far from its moorings. We don't need more ACLU lawsuits that attempt to
further erode and obscure the historical underpinnings of the United States. What we need is an old
dictionary so we can understand what our founders were saying.