Sunday, August 12, 2007

Don't Give Me That "Founding Fathers Never Intended" Crap

Because they did intend religious freedom for everyone, not just Christians, and you can get that straight from Thomas Jefferson, in his remarks on the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, which was the basis for the Religion Clauses in the Constitution's Bill of Rights[*].

The bill for establishing religious freedom, the principles of which had, to a certain degree, been enacted before, I had drawn in all the latitude of reason & right. It still met with opposition; but, with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally passed; and a singular proposition proved that it's protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word "Jesus Christ," so that it should read "a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion." The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of it's protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.


So, you can put that in your pipe, Congressman Sali, and smoke it.

[*]BACKGROUNDER ON THE VIRGINIA STATUTE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. Further, the Library of Virginia provides a Services for Teachers portion of its website, including a list of the known sources relied upon for the Bill of Rights: