[tpaine]

"Religion has been an important cultural and political force since before the inception of the American republic.
Indeed, among the American settlers were the religiously persecuted who fled their native lands in search of the right to worship, free from the interfering hands of the state."

"The early American Christian settlers could never have dreamed that in this atmosphere of freedom, houses of worship would be fruitful and multiply. ---
--- it is clear that tens of millions of people are committed to some kind of religious observance and that the United States remains a profoundly religious society."

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GeorgiaYankee wrote:

This statement is amazingly illogical. The early American Christian settlers came here FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION. Why wouldn't they expect houses of worship to be fuitful and multiply?

How does the author know what these people could or could not have dreamed of? Is he a time-traveler AND a mind-reader?

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No, he's a student of history, and the religious history of that day claimed that the State had to force a religion on the people to ensure piety.
Many of the colonial states had such religions.

We can see now that the opposite is true.

Political freedom is GOOD for religious freedom. The more individual freedom we have, the more pious some people can become..

Unfortunately, there is still a subset of the pious, even today, -- who reject the teachings of history, and want to re-institute State support for churches.

[sheltonmac]

Unfortunately, there is still a subset of the pious, even today, -- who reject the teachings of history, and want to re-institute State support for churches.

Worse, there is a subset of the pious who want to institute church support for the state. This campaign season has made that rather clear.