Freedom of Religion: Bad idea?

[ferretkona]

Originally Posted by John Walmsley

,,,,Although Thomas Jefferson was a great advocate of religious liberty and is said to be the first to use the metaphor of "wall of separation" of church and state, it was actually Roger Williams who first extolled the ideals of a "hedge of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world." Whether Jefferson borrowed the idea from Williams is of little consequence. What is important is that he favored a separation of church and state. Even more important, his friend James Madison incorporated these views in the first amendment.,,,,

Many have believed this was to protect religions from the government, but it is quite the reverse it is to protect our government from religion. Wither or not it has worked is for the experts to say.

[John Walmsley]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

Many have believed this was to protect religions from the government, but it is quite the reverse it is to protect our government from religion. Wither or not it has worked is for the experts to say.

The establishment clause should work to protect both the state and the church. However, I doubt that pressure on government from religious groups was much of a concern to the founders. Revisionist history to the contrary, church attendance in the time of the founders was quite low -- noted religious historian Edwin Gaustad places it at about 15% of the population -- and religio-political blocs didn't exist as they do today. As one historian said, "No greater danger ever faced a nation than when Christianity in the person of religious zealots enters politics."

The following paragraph from a hundred-year-old-history book, Beacon Lights of History, gives a glimpse on the world of the founders: "... Although his [Jefferson's] views were far from orthodox, they did not, after all, greatly differ from those of John Adams himself and the men of that day who were enamored with the ideas of Voltaire and Rousseau. At that time even the most influential of the clergy, especially in New England, were Arminians [followers of Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius) in their religious creed. The eighteenth century was not a profound or religious epoch. It was an age of war and political agitations. -- a drinking, swearing, licentious, godless age among the leaders of society, and of ignorance, prejudice, and pharisaic formalities among the people."

These are not popular historical views of early America, but they are probably quite accurate. When people say that we need to get back to "Christian America" of our founders, they are wishing for a world that never was.

The real danger to religious freedom, in my view, is that in a time of national emergency and hysteria we may jettison the time-honored principle of separation of church and state.