FIRST AMENDMENT
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
Could the language proffered by our Founding Fathers in the First Amendment be any clearer?
Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe and others have said religion should be given two interpretations--a narrow one for Establishment Clause purposes and a broad one for Free Exercise Clause purposes? While I seldom agree with Professor Tribe, upon this issue, I concur.
But no other part of the U.S. Constitution, with the possible exception of the Second Amendment, has created more discussion, anomosity, and diverse opinions. Recent Supreme Court decisions seem to support Plaintiffs who seek to erase God from any form of public demonstration, whether in public schools or on government land.
Did the Founding Fathers believe that God should have no place in a free and democratic society? Here's what some of them had to say:
"With equal pleasure I have as often taken notice, that Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people - a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language , professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government . . . have notably established general liberty and independence." (John Jay, Federalist 2)
"It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand (No, not THAT finger) which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution." ( James Madison, Federalist 37 ).
If the issue is 'tolerance' - an essential component uniquely requisite to the survival of a Democracy (Dictatorships, Monarchies, Oligarchies, etc. not requiring citizen input) then would it really harm an Atheist to see a creche on the courthouse lawn for one month a year? Or a Star of David on a tollbooth in Florida during Hannakuh? Or a Mosque near the Wor . . . Uh, what say you Tribe?
