jjesus's comment history

jjesus said...

The First Amendment regarding religion:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

Uhh ...last I checked, cheerleaders are not Congress; neither is 'making a sign' the same as 'making a law'.

FormerChattanoogaResident: Your thinking is so common and so wrong. If you know your history, you would know that most state governments (e.g., Massachusetts)had religious tests for public office; only the federal government (Congress) had no such tests. That's because a State Government is not 'Congress'; my point being that it is only until recently that people have become confused over the protection of the First Amendment for local and state governments to make all kinds of laws regarding religion. As for a national religion, Madison argued for the word 'respecting' because the other founders did not want to prohibit a national religion from occurring outside of the effects of law; in other words, there is not prohibition of a national religion, only a prohibition of laws respecting the establishment of one.

September 29, 2009 at 4:35 p.m.
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