There is absolutely no way under either Catholicism or Protestantism that an idea like freedom of religion is allowed. That comes straight from the enlightenment from which our founding fathers were heavily influenced.
History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.
Thomas Jefferson
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
Thomas Jefferson
The primary concepts influencing the American formation of govt as opposed to say...post-revolutionary France, were:
1) The fallenness of human nature due to original sin. It is belief in this fallen nature of man that precludes the need for all the checks and balances in our government. Our founders had many debates among them but the ones who won out held an inherent distrust of any concentration of power be within a single individual or a mob, and: a resistance to a guiding, Marxist utopian principle. There is no such thing as heaven on earth. It is impossible because man is not perfectible.
2) Man’s imperfectability surmises the need for the Rule of Law, lest anarchy give way. The laws that restrain the worst of our human impulses are grounded in the eternal statutes of God.
2) The belief that man’s dignity is rooted in his image-bearing of Our Creator, God.
All very Christian concepts.
The primary concepts influencing the American formation of govt as opposed to say...post-revolutionary France, were:
1) The fallenness of human nature due to original sin. It is belief in this fallen nature of man that precedes (not precludes, sorry typo) the need for all the checks and balances in our government.
- Our founders had many debates among them, but the ones who won out held an inherent distrust of any concentration of power be within a single individual or a mob. There was also resistance to any guiding, Marxist (or pre-Marxist) utopian principle. Why? Because there is no such thing as heaven on earth. It is impossible to set up because man is not perfectible.
2) Man’s imperfectability attests to the need for the Rule of Law, lest anarchy give way. The laws that restrain the worst of our human impulses are grounded in the eternal statutes of God.
3) The belief that man’s dignity is rooted in his image-bearing of Our Creator, God, is fundamental to our concept of rights and equal justice.
All very Christian concepts.
(This was re-typed with typos corrected and some additions made.)