Constitutional Secularism Quotes

The treaty, which was also ratified by the Senate, was actually drafted by Joel Barlow, the U. S. Consul in Tripoli. It was the first official statement of the United States on its religious basis or lack thereof.

His reference was to an absence of very much religious language in American documents of the founding fathers. While some founding fathers were very religious, and all knowledgeable about religion, Meacham argues from the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers, and many other documents of the founding of America that the absence of religious language that was present in much other literature, demonstrates a conscious effort to assure that there would be separation of church and state for they had seen the horrors of interreligious strife in Europe and were very cognizant about the problems caused in early Colonial America by established religions.

This quotation is one of the first to make the critical observation that the only time that tolerance of a religion is necessary is when there is an established church and others that deviate from it. If there is no established church, as the Founding Fathers envisioned, there is no preeminent church to do the tolerating. All are equal. In practice, Protestant churches were proportionately dominant in early America and up through the 20th century. So most of the issue of tolerance problems in America were cultural. And there is still a minority of Christians who believe that America should be a Christian country and other religions should be “tolerated.” However, Clinton and most of the founders did not want to see even general Christianity established as the national religion even they it was the majority religion.