“on this thread, the author has the utter nerve to protect himself from expected incoming by hiding behind the Bible. That is not just contemptible, its repulsive.”
“In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”
Thomas Jefferson — in a letter to Horatio Spofford, 1814
" "In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."Thomas Jefferson - in a letter to Horatio Spofford, 1814 "
I take it that Jefferson was not speaking there about all Christian ministers, but instead chiefly the Catholic ones who entitled themselves "priests", though in this inclusive to large extent of Anglican Catholics in addition to Romanist Catholic priests yet more acutely (for the latter).
The key operative phrasing in his expressed thinking being; "...in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own."
Otherwise; the free exercise of religion, in the same 1st Amendment which protects the freedom of speech, is likewise, similarly protected.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment
Jefferson had no opposition to the Bill of Rights, but rather had encouraged Madison (Madison, who it is generally understood is the author of the first proposed form of the Bill of Rights);
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/firstamendment/f/first_amendment.htm