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四、“我们的上帝”
1787年宪法唯一提到“上帝”的地方在制定宪法时间的表述中：“本宪法于我主纪年一千七百又八十七年，美利坚合众国独立后第十二年的九月十七日，在制宪会议上由出席各州一致同意而制定”。8
也许有人认为，这只不过是一个技术性的日期表述，应该没有什么更多的含义。但是不应忘记，这部宪法是在近四个月的时间里，由一些非常审慎的立法者深思熟虑、反复争辩、字斟句酌制定出来的。
宪法制定者正是在这样一个不为人特别注意的地方，悄悄记下了他们对上帝的信靠，对上帝的信靠乃是对上帝的计划的信靠，人必须按照这个计划自己建立自己的政府，依靠自己的能力统治自己。制定者把宪法放在精神的和世俗的双重秩序中，“为了恰当地安置联邦制宪会议，精神的和世俗的秩序都溯及了。”9
耶稣纪年的开始与上帝有关，美利坚合众国的独立作为一个事件，并不完全决定于人的意愿，但是，宪法——一国之政治架构——确是完全靠人的理性能力创造的，是各州在一个和平的会议中“一致同意”制定的。
《联邦党人文集》第一篇写到：“时常有人指出，下面这个重要问题似乎是留待这个国家的人民用他们的行为和范例来决定的：人类社会是否真正能够通过深思熟虑和自由选择来建立良好的政府，还是他们永远注定要靠机遇和强力来决定他们的政治组织。”10宪法制定者已经在这里选择了他们的答案，而其后各州人民的批准，以及两百多年来的多次增补修订，无数的宪法诉讼，似乎都表明，人的深思熟虑和自由选择和上帝的计划一直在一起进行。
【注释】
*法学博士，北京大学法学院讲师。电子邮件：zhaoxl at law.pku.edu.cn
1 Kathleen M. Sullivan & Gerald Gunther (ed.), Constitutional Law, 14th Edition, New York:Foundation Press, 2001.
2 "同时，’an establishment’这个短语看来保证了非歧视的宗教援助的合法性。假若宪法制定者禁止的是’the establishment of religion,’——这个短语强调的是属类的’宗教’这个词——那么认为他们想禁止的是所有对宗教优于非宗教的官方待遇。但是通过选择’an establishment’而不是’the establishment’，他们表明他们想禁止的只是那些会促进某个特定教派的利益的官方活动。”Michael J.Malbin, Religion and Politics: The Intention of the Authors of the First Amendment, p.14,Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1978.
3 "Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to exalt it by its influence on reason alone;...", Virginia Bill for Religious Liberty.
4 原文为：“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
5 汉密尔顿、杰伊、麦迪逊，《联邦党人文集》，页430，程逢如、在汉、舒逊译，北京：商务印书馆，1995。
6 原文为：“We the People of the United States,...do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
7 原文为：“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
8 原文为：“Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth.”
9 George Anastaplo, The Constitution of 1787: A Commentary, p.221, Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1989. 10汉密尔顿、杰伊、麦迪逊，《联邦党人文集》，页3，程逢如、在汉、舒逊译，北京：商务印书馆，1995
文章来源：《中外法学》2003年第4期
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