Nonsporting wrote:
" -- our founders were men of prayer and repeatedly petitioned Providence to intercede in the afairs of men.
We owe our legacy of freedom to men of faith and action.
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Yet these men of faith & action were wise enough to conclude our Constitution with a prohibition that no State or Federal offices shall ever have a religious Test as a requirement.
They then begain our BOR's with a prohibition that some of those same officals, Congress, " -- shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, -- "
Fancy that.
That "religous test" was intended to calm interdenominational contentions. Several of the first thirteen States had religious establishments (where one Christian denomination was favored and supported). Yet, this federal constitutional provision did NOT disuade State Constitutions from their religious tests for State office Qualifications for Office.
They then begain our BOR's with a prohibition that some of those same officals, Congress, " -- shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, -- "
Fancy that.
The States sought to protect their religious establishements from a potentially imposed federal establishment. The Real 1st Amendment. Requirement(s) for office holders, Monuments and reliefs with religious themes, public proclamations, public prayer, ... all these practices were an unquestioned part of this nation's past. Now, today one must conclude from federal court rulings that honoring God in almost any form (with few exceptions) is "unconstitutional." The law hasn't changed. Men have done this.
The truth is there for anyone interested in finding it. The founders were prodigious writers.