NO.
The founders wanted to keep government out of religion.
They had no problem with religion’s influence on government, and in fact among the first official acts of both houses of Congress was to provide for a chaplin for each house. Since day 1, sessions of congress have been opened with prayer.
Try again.
- JP
Actually, it was my understanding that the prohibition against the establishment of a "state church" by the federal government was generally included so that the individual states each had the right to define their own state religion.
Of course, the 14th Amendment renders that moot, as the restrictions against the federal government were extended to the states. But originally, the point was to allow Massachusetts to define its own official religion while Virginia defined another, as an example.