Critics of those of us who believe the Constitution is secular love to say that the establishment clause of the First Amendment does not provide for a separation of church and state.
Well, lest there be any doubt that the founders intended the First Amendment to do just that, consider the text of this letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802:
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state."
Case closed.
posted by Scott @ 11:50 AM
2 Comments:
Treaty of Tripoli
Approved unanimously by the US Senate in 1797 and ratified by President John Adams.
Article 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
That's another good one. There's more on the Treaty of Tripoli in a post from a few months back.
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