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Apr. 30th, 2004 10:08 pmFYI:
The Founders, as a collective, were not against the state establishment of religion. George Washington himself was a prominent antidisestablishmentarian, who wanted Virginia to maintain the Episcopal Church as the state church. The First Amendment, when enacted, did not bar government establishment of religion. It barred Federal interference in state decisions on the matter. Massachusetts had an established state church all the way out to 1833 (forty years after ratification of the First Amendment), when it was disestablished by in-state action (the Supreme Court that very year ruled that Massachusetts had the right to have a state church).
I'm not saying that church-state interaction is a good idea. I'm merely pointing out that invoking the Founders as an authority against it is ahistorical nonsense.
The Founders, as a collective, were not against the state establishment of religion. George Washington himself was a prominent antidisestablishmentarian, who wanted Virginia to maintain the Episcopal Church as the state church. The First Amendment, when enacted, did not bar government establishment of religion. It barred Federal interference in state decisions on the matter. Massachusetts had an established state church all the way out to 1833 (forty years after ratification of the First Amendment), when it was disestablished by in-state action (the Supreme Court that very year ruled that Massachusetts had the right to have a state church).
I'm not saying that church-state interaction is a good idea. I'm merely pointing out that invoking the Founders as an authority against it is ahistorical nonsense.
