- Oct 6, 2008
- 125,102
- 60,661
I just read a post demanding "freedom FROM religion"....and noted the terminal misunderstanding therein of both religion, and of the nation.
It requires a closer examination.
The Founders envisioned a God-fearing nation, but one built on the Judeo-Christian tradition. We find references to it in the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution.
At no time did they intend hostility, or even indifference, to religion.
1. "The Founding Fathers did not want the federal government to impose a national religion. They feared replicating in America an institution like the Church of England, which would set at the federal level an official religious denomination for the United States. They wanted not only to protect individual conscience, but also to protect the religious freedom of the states. Six states, in fact, refused to accept the US Constitution until it was made clear that the First Amendment prevented the federal government from imposing a national church on them....those six states that finally signed the Constitution ran established churches."
Schlafly, "No Higher Power," p.15-16
2. As for the famous “separation of church and state,” the phrase appears in no federal document. In fact, at the time of ratification of the Constitution, ten of the thirteen colonies had some provision recognizing Christianity as either the official, or the recommended religion in their state constitutions.
a. From the 1790 Massachusetts Constitution, written by John Adams, includes: [the] good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend(s) upon piety, religion, and morality…by the institution of public worship of God and of the public instruction in piety, religion, and morality…”
Constitution of Massachusetts - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
b. North Carolina Constitution, article 32, 1776: “That no person who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority of either the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall b e capable of holding any office, or place of trust or profit, in the civil department, within this State.” Constitution of North Carolina 1776
c. So, the Founders intention was to be sure that the federal government didn’t do the same, and mandate a national religion. And when Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists in 1802, it was to reassure them the federal government could not interfere in their religious observations, i.e., there is “a wall of separation between church and state.” He wasn’t speaking of religion contaminating the government, but of the government contaminating religious observance.
3. "It is indisputable that the First Amendment was written not to suppress those state churches but to protect them from the fedral government. Leaders of those six states would never have signed the Constitution otherwise. They insisted on the language, 'Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," to make clear that the federal government ha no right to establish its own religion and disestablish theirs."
Schlafly, Op. Cit, p. 16
BTW.....Leftism....Liberalism....has all the requirements that hallmark a "religion,"...
...and like the Islamofascism roiling the world today,,,,
....it demands the dismantling of every other religion.
That's what "freedom from religion" actually means.
It requires a closer examination.
The Founders envisioned a God-fearing nation, but one built on the Judeo-Christian tradition. We find references to it in the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution.
At no time did they intend hostility, or even indifference, to religion.
1. "The Founding Fathers did not want the federal government to impose a national religion. They feared replicating in America an institution like the Church of England, which would set at the federal level an official religious denomination for the United States. They wanted not only to protect individual conscience, but also to protect the religious freedom of the states. Six states, in fact, refused to accept the US Constitution until it was made clear that the First Amendment prevented the federal government from imposing a national church on them....those six states that finally signed the Constitution ran established churches."
Schlafly, "No Higher Power," p.15-16
2. As for the famous “separation of church and state,” the phrase appears in no federal document. In fact, at the time of ratification of the Constitution, ten of the thirteen colonies had some provision recognizing Christianity as either the official, or the recommended religion in their state constitutions.
a. From the 1790 Massachusetts Constitution, written by John Adams, includes: [the] good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend(s) upon piety, religion, and morality…by the institution of public worship of God and of the public instruction in piety, religion, and morality…”
Constitution of Massachusetts - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
b. North Carolina Constitution, article 32, 1776: “That no person who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority of either the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall b e capable of holding any office, or place of trust or profit, in the civil department, within this State.” Constitution of North Carolina 1776
c. So, the Founders intention was to be sure that the federal government didn’t do the same, and mandate a national religion. And when Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists in 1802, it was to reassure them the federal government could not interfere in their religious observations, i.e., there is “a wall of separation between church and state.” He wasn’t speaking of religion contaminating the government, but of the government contaminating religious observance.
3. "It is indisputable that the First Amendment was written not to suppress those state churches but to protect them from the fedral government. Leaders of those six states would never have signed the Constitution otherwise. They insisted on the language, 'Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," to make clear that the federal government ha no right to establish its own religion and disestablish theirs."
Schlafly, Op. Cit, p. 16
BTW.....Leftism....Liberalism....has all the requirements that hallmark a "religion,"...
...and like the Islamofascism roiling the world today,,,,
....it demands the dismantling of every other religion.
That's what "freedom from religion" actually means.