Quote:
Originally Posted by RichC
Most of the founding faters were not cristians.
And they tried very hard to keep religion out of the constitution.
Remember that religous freedom was one of the reasons we sailed across the ocean.
Seperation of church and state gives these religous types freedom to worship whom/what ever they wish. But they dont seem to understand that.
They want to mandate their own religon, and they all think theirs is the one true religon.
Having things like the 10 commandments in any government building is sponoring a state religon.
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Most of the founders were indeed, Christian. Most of the Christians were C of E. The most important founders, like St Thomas of Jefferson and St George of Washington and St John of Adams (Deist, C of E, and Congregationalist) expressed religion as a necessary attribute of a democratic government run by a free people.
None of the founders (IIRC) ever suggested that the federal government should show any religious preference toward anybody or any religion. There is a famous letter from Geo Washington to a synagogue (Long Island?) in which he guaranteed that the new nation would regard Jews as equal citizens. Later when Jefferson was president he made essentially the same claim to North African Arab states. IIRC, Jefferson overtly claimed in a treaty ratified by Congress with the Bey of Tripoli that the United States is NOT a Christian nation.
Thus, the founders, all believers and mostly Christians, intentionally founded a secular state based on religious tolerance.
Curiously, NONE of the founders presumed to argue that the nation's Constitution prevented any state from favoring a state religion. Some states favored a particular religion upon entry into the union and were not compelled to change. The founders, every one, believed that the constitution established the limits of the federal government with respect to the states. This general philosophy was enacted by amendment (#10). Simple words, interpretation of which puts me firmly in the minority:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.