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The colonies already had official religions and discriminated against other religions. And Virginia state religion did affect people from other colonies wishing to relocate there if they were from the wrong religiin. Your forefathers saw what had already happen in Europe with all those religious wars and massacres and wished to prevent those from occurring in a new country. If it had been in the Constitution that states could call their own official religion how could a court rule otherwise in 1947?
The Constitution does not enumerate the power of the states. Do you realize that? It wasn't written to say what the states could do. It doesn't say what Virginia, or Rhode Island can do with religion. It says what CONGRESS can do.
Have you read the 10th Amendment?
"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."
We've been through this before. We won't be repeating pages and pages of what has been thoroughly discussed, nor will we be turning this into a History, Politics, or Civics class.
With the passage of the 14th Amendment in 1868, the Constitution and all of the Amendments were explicitly applied to the states as well as the federal government. This was done because the states had tried to restrict voting rights for former slaves, declare that those born slaves weren't citizens, etc. That same amendment also made sure that anyone born in the US was a citizen. (See how those pesky unintended consequences work?) That amendment, for all practical purposes, made sure that all of those state religion laws were unconstitutional, because it made clear that the 1st Amendment applied to the states as well as to Congress.
It's always amazing to me how poorly people understand the Constitution.
The opinions of the founding fathers, are many and varied. It's very difficult to figure out with any clarity what some of them really believed. It is clear that many of them believed something, but it is very unclear precisely WHAT they believed. We could get into a quote battle, and accomplish exactly nothing.
The only thing that is clear is that the separation of church and state written into the 1st Amendment was part of the foundation of the country from days prior to the Constitutional Convention.
The United States is NOT a Christian nation legally (constitutionally). The United States has always been a Christian nation through the majority of numbers of its citizens. At the turn of this new century, 90% of the American population considered itself to be Christian. That number has dropped to 70% today. If this trend continues, Christians will no longer be in the majority by the middle of this century. At which point no one will be able to make the case that America is a Christian country.
We've been through this before. We won't be repeating pages and pages of what has been thoroughly discussed, not will we be turning this into a History, Politics, or Civics class.
With the passage of the 14th Amendment in 1868, the Constitution and all of the Amendments were explicitly applied to the states as well as the federal government. This was done because the states had tried to restrict voting rights for former slaves, declare that those born slaves weren't citizens, etc. That same amendment also made sure that anyone born in the US was a citizen. (See how those pesky unintended consequences work?) That amendment, for all practical purposes, made sure that all of those state religion laws were unconstitutional, because it made clear that the 1st Amendment applied to the states as well as to Congress.
It's always amazing to me how poorly people understand the Constitution.
The opinions of the founding fathers, are many and varied. It's very difficult to figure out with any clarity what some of them really believed. It is clear that many of them believed something, but it is very unclear precisely WHAT they believed. We could get into a quote battle, and accomplish exactly nothing.
The only thing that is clear is that the separation of church and state written into the 1st Amendment was part of the foundation of the country from days prior to the Constitutional Convention.
I find it amazing that people want to pick and choose only the amendments that they like. Fundies always try to twist the words of the 1st amendment so as to get around the separation of church and state, and then they somehow forget how to count all the way up to 14 when they start talking about states rights.
This stuff is settled law, and has been settled for decades or centuries. If you want to argue about the constitution, that fine, but lets take the whole constitution into account like Mensa does.
We've been through this before. We won't be repeating pages and pages of what has been thoroughly discussed, not will we be turning this into a History, Politics, or Civics class.
With the passage of the 14th Amendment in 1868, the Constitution and all of the Amendments were explicitly applied to the states as well as the federal government. This was done because the states had tried to restrict voting rights for former slaves, declare that those born slaves weren't citizens, etc. That same amendment also made sure that anyone born in the US was a citizen. (See how those pesky unintended consequences work?) That amendment, for all practical purposes, made sure that all of those state religion laws were unconstitutional, because it made clear that the 1st Amendment applied to the states as well as to Congress.
It's always amazing to me how poorly people understand the Constitution.
The opinions of the founding fathers, are many and varied. It's very difficult to figure out with any clarity what some of them really believed. It is clear that many of them believed something, but it is very unclear precisely WHAT they believed. We could get into a quote battle, and accomplish exactly nothing.
The only thing that is clear is that the separation of church and state written into the 1st Amendment was part of the foundation of the country from days prior to the Constitutional Convention.
yup, freedom of religion, separation of church and state, and capitalism is far superior to anti-religious socialism. thats what the founding father understood. One look around the world today and its self-evident.
freedom of religion and separation of church and state demonstrate an intellectual and emotional maturity. Its why I can't side with anti-religion and deny everything sects of atheism. they impede on freedom and are unscientific statements of belief.
yup, freedom of religion, separation of church and state, and capitalism is far superior to anti-religious socialism. thats what the founding father understood. One look around the world today and its self-evident.
freedom of religion and separation of church and state demonstrate an intellectual and emotional maturity. Its why I can't side with anti-religion and deny everything sects of atheism. they impede on freedom and are unscientific statements of belief.
America is founded on capitalism...we say religion because it sounds more civil.
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