Sunday, June 12, 2005

Got some ideas on the "Seperation of Church and State" from them that know what they ment

I got an e-mail, and I pulled the quotes.
They don't work for the ACLU nor are they Liberal activist Judges- just:

"All [laws], however may be arranged in two different classes. 1) Divine. 2) Human... But it should always be remembered that this law, natural or revealed, made for men and for nations, flows from the same Divine source: it is the law of God... Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is Divine."
James Wilson, Signer of the Constitution; Supreme Court Justice



"We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind of self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
James Madison, 4th president of US (1751 - 1836)



"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ".
Patrick Henry 1736-99, American Founding Father


"To suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own." Thomas Jefferson, Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779.

I was checking the veracity of these quotes because they came from a "60 Minutes" piece (and you know how well they vet their stuff)
when I came on this "famouse" quote in full

"Believing that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and 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."
Thomas Jefferson, to Danbury Baptists, 1802

And again in 1808:
"Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.
We have solved ... the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries"

which resulted in:
"In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect 'a wall of separation' between church and state."
Hugo Black, Everson v. Board of Education (1947)

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