Oooops forgot to cite this

6
FREEDOM FROM AND OF RELIGION
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM Is guaranteed in the two opening clauses of the First
Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Together, the clauses
guarantee freedom from and of religion by pointing in opposite directions.
The establishment clause points toward a principle of the separation of
government from religion; neither should involve itself with the other. T=

free exercise clause suggests a principle of voluntarism-freedom from
coercion in choosing a religion or no religion.

Religious freedom has never been absolute, however. The First Amendment, =

the Court observed in Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296 (1940),
"embraces two concepts-freedom to believe and freedom to act. The first is
absolute but, in the nature of things, the second cannot be. Conduct
remains subject to regulation of society." Drawing on the distinction
between belief and action, the Court thus wrote into constitutional law a
third principle of religious freedom that runs back to Thomas Jefferson,
who, in his Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom for the state of
Virginia in 1779, observed that "the acts of the body," unlike "the
operations of the mind, are subject to the coercion of the laws. . . "1

[snip]

Unlike those who shared Roger Williams's view, Jefferson was more concern=

about insulating government from the influences of religion and religious
fervor. In his home state of Virginia, Jefferson had fought for religious
freedom-freedom not just for Protestants or Christians. As he reflected
about the opposition in 1779 to his "Bill for Establishing Religious
Freedom":

Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of
the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting
the word "Jesus Christ," that it should read, "a departure from the plan =

Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected
by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the
mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and
Mohometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.8

James Madison agreed that a wall of separation would help preserve the
integrity of government, but he also thought that it might benefit religi=

as well. Madison, along with Jefferson, opposed proposals to establish
religious taxes in Virginia. In his famous "Memorial and Remonstrance
against Religious Assessments" in 1785, he persuasively argued against
government support of religion. Governmental assistance to religious
establishments, Madison maintained, tended to divide society into factions
and produce "pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in
the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." Nor did Madis=

think government depended on the support of religion. "That is not a just
government," he wrote in 1792, in which "a man's religious rights are
violated by penalties, or fettered by tests, or taxes by a hierarchy."9
SOURCE: CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND POLITICS, Vol. 2, Civil Rights, Civil
Liberties, David M. O'Brien Fourth Edition, W.W. Norton & Co. NY p. 655
(2000)


***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:

The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm

American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm

The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html

[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]

HRSepCnS =B7 Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/

[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]

***************************************************************
. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why =

page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisne=

256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote

"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"

That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.

It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.

*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************

Oooops forgot to cite this

6
FREEDOM FROM AND OF RELIGION
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM Is guaranteed in the two opening clauses of the First
Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Together, the clauses
guarantee freedom from and of religion by pointing in opposite directions.

:|>
:|>"Conflicts in the exercise of rights arise and the conflicting forces
:|>seek adjustments in the courts, as do these parties, claiming on the
:|>one side the freedom of religion, speech and the press, guaranteed by
:|>the Fourteenth Amendment, and on the other the right to employ the
:|>sovereign power explicitly reserved to the State by the Tenth Amendment
:|>to ensure orderly living without which constitutional guarantees of
:|>civil liberties would be a mockery." --Justice Reed, Jones v. City of
:|>Opelika, 1942.
:|